Naruto: Fairytail's Maelstrom
by LandoCali
Summary: Naruto dies in his final battle with Sasuke destroying the last major piece of hatred from the world.Kami being thankful gives him a new life where he can have less of a burden, more fun, and perhaps eventually find love like Kami keeps hinting at. NarutoxErza no harem that's it though many women like Naruto. Will be M for lemons in a lot of chapters from now.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue Start- Death of a Legend

Naruto Namikaze, the child of prophecy, the hero of konoha, and container of Kurama the nine-tailed fox was dying due to gaping hole in his chest caused by his former friend who was already dead.

It had been two years since the end of the 4th great shinobi war and 2 out of the last 3 uchiha's were either killed or sealed in madara's case. This left sasuke as the last Uchiha, he who still wanted revenge on Konoha for what they did to his clan and his brother.

Naruto had matured a lot during the short period of fighting and mass death that was war. The deaths of neji, tsunade, and others caused him to finally drop his mask of stupidity and eternal happiness he held since he was a child.

After the war ended he started training with thousands of clones straight though each day he wasn't on mission. He worked on elemental manipulation until he could say without bragging he was the best wind user on the planet with over 100 jutsu some being his own creations, but of course with so many clones he didn't limit himself to only wind attacks. He was better that most jonin in water, earth, and lightning manipulation.

He had more than 30 different jutsus of each of these elements mastered to a degree that he could perform them with less hand signs or just one for the low ranked ones. His fire manipulation in his own words "sucked ass," because it was about as good as an average genin, with 5 fire attacks that were d-rank, one c-rank, and one b-rank. Although his fire attacks were weak he learned to use them in collaboration with toads and his own clones who used wind jutsu to increase their power.

The war taught him to use his brain more rather that pure power and so he sent clones to the library to read up on tactics and how to lead people (because he needed to know how to lead to being hokage, dattebayo).

His chakra control improved in leaps and bounds due to his creative mixing and changing of the exercises that already existed, he could dispel most all genjutsu but he didn't learn very many as it still wasn't his style.

After returning home he moved into his parents home where he found a ornate chakra conducting sword that apparently belonged to his mother. With its red handle and her red hair caused her to be nicknamed the red death. He also found scrolls and notes she had wrote to pass on her sword style and so he learned it in her honor. He found the style worked well for him.

He learned quite a bit about sealing, which his father had left lying in the library. One of the seals turned out to be his dad's secret to his godly speed that he had even without the use of Hirashin. It was a combination gravity/weight seal to weigh him down along with a resistence seal to make the air resist his movements and feel as if walking through water or pushing a large, heavy wall at all times. This combined his healing he became as fast as Ay at full speed.

With all of the notes and formulas that his father had left behind, Naruto had soon became known as a prodigy of seals and even managed to recreate the Hirashin with an orange flash. Although he had recreated it, he hadn't used it for anything but training when he was by himself.

He hadn't fought anyone that was strong enough for him to use it and he wanted a hidden trump card for a time when he needed it. So nobody new he could use it, not even his friends.

Over the two years with all of these new skills became Konoha's strongest jonin, who happened to be stronger than the rokudaime hokage. The rokudaime Hokage was his old sensei Kakashi seeing as Naruto despite Kakashi's and most of Konoha's insistence refused to become hokage stating, "he had one more thing to deal with before he allowed himself to take the position he dreamed of from when he first heard of it til even now." Which led to where we are now lying on the ground with death close with his once best friend dead two feet away from him.

He had been on an escort mission with his new genin team which he had taken from another jonin who died on a miss-ranked mission in order to protect his students. Naruto and the now dead jonin had both trained them well. Naruto was sure all three would become chunin in the exam which was in Suna.

Just they were about to about to set off from camp for the last day of the mission sasuke appeared in front of them and blocked their path. Immediately naruto moved in front of his team and told them to run and that this was personal and a kage level fight they wouldn't be able to help with.

Despite all of their protesting he silenced them with a look that left no argument. Naruto spoke "this fight has been paused for 5 years it's time to end it and won't allow you to get involved, you are not ready and he will kill you if he gets the chance. Now complete the mission and escort Mr. Tojo home…"

He turned and smiled sorrowfully at them, "I may die in this fight and if I do, I don't want you to behave how you were when I first met you after the death of your old sensei. You will not sulk, the will of fire burns in all three of you. You will move forward and become stronger, train harder and fight for the people of the village you love with you life, as I will now. Now leave!" all three students that had come to be a little family as all were orphans hugged the figure the had become a parent to them and gave him words of encouragement before taking their client and leaving. Naruto turned back to his old friend who waited rather annoyed and their final battled began.

The following fight was a battle of epic proportions of which hadn't been seen from a two person fight since Madara Uchiha vs. Hashirama Senju. After two days of constant fighting both stopped, panting each on the wall of one side of a newly created valley. Naruto straightened himself and looked at sasuke and they both spoke at the same time "let's finish this how we did last time teme/dobe."

Each held out their hands and there respective attacks formed. Lightning shot across the crying sky and both figures shot toward each other each calling out there technique as they reached each other "rasengan/chidori!" they were 5 feet, 4 feet,3 feet away and each shove their jutsu at the other and unlike last time sasuke didn't miss his target and naruto didn't change his aim to be a non-lethal hit.

The rasengan drilled through sasukes chest and splattered out his back for an instant kill while at the same time his chidori pierced naruto's chest, just grazing his heart and both fell to the ground in heap each with his arm lodged in the other chest. Naruto felt the life leaving but suddenly heard Kurama screaming in his head to stay awake and that he would heal him.

Naruto smiled "Kurama its okay I'm happy and we both know you cant heal this fast enough to save me. Sasuke was the last remnants of major hatred in this world, true peace will reign for at least the next few thousand years. I am known as the hero who brought peace despite my insistence that I shouldn't be seen as such. They will heed my wish for peace and the third book of A Tale of a Gutsy Shinobi is at a close and what a masterpiece it is. But, Kurama promise me that when you reform you will protect this ending."

He heard one last sentence from the fuzz ball before the light left Naruto's eyes forever "Kit, it's the promise of a lifetime."

When their bodies were recovered and the news spread throughout the nations they made a holiday to honor Naruto and every person who lost their life fighting for the dream of peace and as a day for the nations to reaffirm old bonds and create new ones.

In Konoha they named him the Nanadaime Hokage and incorporated his face into the mountain and despite having no days in office he would be long remembered as the best, strongest Hokage who brought an end to war between the nations.

Naruto woke up and found himself in a familiar place after all he came here to play shogi and cards every weekend with kurama, this was his mindscape. It had changed from the dark, dank sewer it once was, after he and kurama became friends he found that that place changed in was now the large forest that surrounded konoha, he got up and turned in the direction of konoha where he could see the hokage monument from here and was surprised to see his own face after kakashi's he smiled he new he was dead there was no way he wasn't. This had to be his mindscape or heaven… or hell because he sensed no life anywhere including the obviously healthy trees around him which meant this wasn't real, he briefly pondered whether or not the afterlife was supposed to be this lonely.

He decided to walk to his favorite spot to lay down and think or simply relax, his father's stone head. He had walked for 5 min and was approaching the gates when suddenly a girl appeared in front of him and he immediately had to fight off a blush and calm his heart rate as this was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

She had flowing crimson hair that went just past her slender shoulders, deep brown eyes, and a body that to him was completely and utterly perfect, she was wearing a clean white robe that did nothing to hide her curves.

They stared at each other for a moment before she spoke in a powerful yet feminine voice, "I am Kami and as such am able to reward you for all of the help you gave me. Should you chose to accept it."

She looked at him expectantly for a reply when stuttered out " kkkkami-sama you are thhhee mo-most." He shook head to get rid of the nervousness before continuing "beautiful girl I've ever seen and I would love to hear your offer." She smiled softly before speaking again, "thank you, you aren't to bad of looker yourself… well at least when your not wearing orange and with your hair grown out like your father's, but I don't really have a set form I simply chose what would be considered perfect in the looks department in your opinion. Now for my offer," she stated as two chairs and a table appeared out of nowhere.

She sat down and gestured him to the other. "If you could live again would you." He stared at her rather surprised by what he supposed that was the offer

"I would but what is the catch?" she chuckled lightly "nothing to bad it would simply have to be a different world than the one you died in and I've already found the perfect one for you, its called Earthland, it is a place similar to your world but rather than villages that accept missions they have guilds where members are paid to do jobs from your worlds d-rank chores to SS-rank killing a dragon."

She laughed again at his face as the look of awe at the mention of dragons was hilarious. "of the people of Earthland only 10% have powers, which they call magic. There are many types of magic just like you jutsu but their power source is different, when I created that world I made and energy called eternano which is the same as the spiritual energy in your chakra."

She paused and contemplated what to talk about next and Naruto waited more with more patience than he thought he had "the world hasn't had a full war for a thousand years but there are what are known as dark guilds, they have broken laws and taken missions they weren't allowed to such as assassination missions and controlling demons and beasts or simply mages to kill and destroy cities and lives." She then explained every nuance about the world, its laws, its customs, and everything else.

She finally finished sometime later, "That's all you really need to know if you accept, any other info you will learn as you live your life there. So any questions and do you accept or do you want to discover death at 18?"

Naruto sat there for a few min going over all the info to come up with a decision, "I have four questions. 1. Will kurama come with me there, 2. Will I retain all of what I had before I died such as my jutsu, 3. Will I be able to learn magic, 4. Why would you want to do this for me."

She smiled sadly "I'm sorry but your fuzzy friend is tethered to the elemental nations I cannot remove him from there with out breaking my own laws, I'm already bending them as it is. I will change nothing physically or mentally so that will be fine but also means you won't be able to use magic since you body doesn't have an eternano container. And, lastly because I feel with all the crap you've gone through you deserve to live without the weight of the world on you shoulders. To have some fun, and even build a family with a girl I think you will end up loving."

She watched laughing at how cutely he went from sad to happy to disappointed to face red as tomato in embarrassment. "Don't laugh, ttebayo." He covered his mouth as she laughed even harder, when she finally calmed down she heard him mutter "even kami makes fun of me." Before he smiled "I think it sounds like fun, I would love to try living there but any ideas of where I should go?"

"I already chose a nice city and guild for you and will drop you off there. The guild Fairy Tail in magnolia town is perfect for you. They are one of the strongest guilds out there even if they don't have as many members as other guilds, they have the same ideals as konoha in believing the guild is one large family and each member will protect one another with their life. They have a penchant for mass destruction on missions like you, they all have quirks like your ttebayo, they absolutely don't kill like you prefer but were forced, and all the girls are sexy,"

Naruto sputtered with a red face as she continually embarrassed him, "The guild master is a grandfather figure to the guild, like the third Hokage was to Konoha, and he even wears a funny orange hat you could appreciate for whatever reason people like wearing orange."

Naruto responded "you know if you were in need of another job other than creating everything you could be a damn good salesman, I accept and I thank you for the opportunity and say hello to my parents, jiji, my friends, and baachan in heaven for me."

She smiled "I will, good luck, and your mother repeatedly asks me if she has lots of grandchildren yet so do that for her please." Embarrassing him one last time but before he could respond he vanished in a orange flash of light. Kami looked at spot where he was moments ago "he is so fun to mess with." Before, she herself flashed away.

Naruto woke with a start again, he sat up rubbed his eyes and looked around the small clearing he was in and thought. "Damn, another chance in a new world, I wonder how many can say that?" he stretched and felt around him with his chakra. A skill Iruka taught him, well it explained how he always found me after pranks, and he thought he was making mistakes in his stealth.

He felt a lot of energy signatures in front of him and thought, "That must be magnolia." He looked at himself and found he had everything his storage scrolls that held 20 sets of his clothes which happened to be his jonin flak jacket which was over a skin tight yet unrestricting black muscle shirt, red sage cloak with black flames on the bottom and maelstrom written in kanji down the middle, anbu style dark blue cargo pants with his mom's sword on his hip, and normal shinobi sandals.

He had his scroll with 800 hirashin kunai, 550 normal shuriken, 3- 100 sheet packs of sealing grade paper. 400 paper bombs, 100 smoke bombs, and a months worth of rations. He snorted seeing an akatsuki outfit in his stuff. He also found an envelope with money he assumed was for this country with a note stating it was enough for a decent apartment for the month. With inventory done he set off to join fairy tail and start his new life.

End Prologue, Start Special double chapter

Start Chapter 1- Naruto the Fairy

Fairy Tail in 2 words was "fucking awesome," the moment he opened the oversized door he had to avoid a barrel heading straight at his head. He watched as most everyone unceremoniously beat the shit out of each other all the while smiling like mad, whether or not they were the one being hit. he could tell there was not bad blood between any of them, well except for the pink haired guy and the one in his boxers they appear to be like how he and sasuke were when they were first put on the same team.

He spotted in the chaos; a girl doing a strange dance on a table, a brown haired girl in a bikini drinking out of one of the barrels that he had to avoid when coming in, and an old man with a funny orange hat banging his head on a pillar who he could hear barely hear muttering "uhh the paperwork I'll have" over and over again, two middle aged men one with a weird haircut who was smoking a pipe and one drinking at the bar both sitting next each other wasting no time leering at the backside of a pretty silver haired girl who appeared to be the barmaid and happened to be walking to me.

When she somehow crossed the guild unscathed which had me thinking that she was a good mage or this happened a lot and I was leaning toward both being true. She smiled sweetly before speaking, "Welcome to fairy tail I'm Mirajane, but everyone just calls me Mira. How can I help you?"

Naruto looked around observing the brawl before looking at her "this happens a lot doesn't it?"

She had the same sweet smile on her face and answered "yes, especially when natsu and grey are here." She pointed at the pink haired one and the stripping one I noticed earlier. "but, I don't mind," she continued "it makes it more interesting now that I don't take missions dontcha think."

Naruto felt himself chuckle "you know this place looks like a lot of fun. I'm glad I decided to try and join this guild, I'm Naruto by the way. I would like to speak to your master about joining if he would be willing."

Her smile brightened even more if that was possible "of course im sure master would love to have you join, we don't get many new members because most are to afraid to ask and think there is some crazy hard test or you need an invitation."

Naruto laughed "that's silly if they don't even ask, how are they supposed to find out. I just heard that this guild was like a large family that protects one another and that is something I wanted to join being an orphan." Mira stared at the more than likely newest member of the guild, she could tell he had more than likely had a difficult past just like most people here.

She wouldn't pry though she knew from experience he would tell people when he was ready whether it be 10 min or 10 years, "well as I said we welcome you to the family but you have to check with master do the official paperwork and get the guild stamp. Master is the one over there beating his head on the wall."

He smiled at his first friend in this new world. "I could tell only old men complaining about paperwork can be leader, its like the ultimate law of the universe, paperwork is an enemy that even the most powerful people who can never find a way around it. My surrogate grandfather who complained about it for thirty years never found a way around it. Well I'm going to talk to him now see you around Mira-chan."

I headed to the master not noticing the blushing, silver haired barmaid who's only thought was "he's so hot."

Makorav watched as the guild was being disassembled once again, by a brawl started by natsu and grey, he really outta end it before they destroyed the building but two things stopped him from ending it, one was that guy who was now talking with mira and the other well… he was being lazy.

He watched the blonde boy watch the destruction and talk to mira while smiling with what appeared to be amusement. So he clearly wasn't here to request a mission or from the council otherwise it would be a look of disgust or displeasure, which left the option of a new guild prospect.

He watched mira blush as he headed over to him and thought " its been a while since mira has even looked at a boy with interest let alone blush, maybe he could help her get over Lisanna and continue her life with his friendship, "or more than friendship." He thought with a perverted giggle.

Naruto heard the perverted giggle from his future master a sighed inwardly "why are all old men perverted." Naruto had no doubts the man was powerful he could feel the suppressed energy from the old man it had to be slightly larger than kisame's energy level and that was crazy. It was the only amount of energy that was comparable to his own as far as he could remember, but unlike kisame this energy felt bright and happy.

Naruto approached the man and was about to speak when he was cut off the man he was about to talk to "you know for a young one you have the most energy I have ever felt since the master of my time was here." Naruto chuckled at the irony "funny, I was just going to say something similar, but I came to ask if you would like to add another gaki to your crazy guild?"

the old man laughed in earnest, "I like you gaki, I, Makarov Deyer would love to have you here. Just tell me your name and fill out this form while I go find the stamp."

He pulled out a sheet from nowhere and handed it to naruto, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I look forward to being in your guild."

The short man nodded toward him as walked off to find the stamp and Naruto filled out the paperwork questions such as name, date of application, date of approval(master signature), age, date of birth, then for magic he had to think "kami mentioned lost magic they are rare and sometimes relatively unknown so I'll use that,"

naruto wrote Lost Magic:Ninjustu and Lost Magic:Fuinjutsu. The next question was Approximate rank D-A ranks, (S-rank must have been tested by either the mage council or guild master.) he answered A-rank.

Just as he finished the form the master came back with a large stamp and ink pad. "Alright fishcake what color and where do you want it."

Naruto hung his head in defeat with a small raincloud over his head and mumbled "it means maelstrom dattebayo."

The man chuckled "A verbal tick, that's a new one we've got a literal hothead, an accidental stripper, a fish obsessed cat, a cake loving knight, a man who can't chose which job to get, and many others." He finished pointing at the woman who was drinking what appeared to be alcohol out a barrel half the size of her body. He paused putting his hand to his chin, "actually we already do have a verbal tick, Elfman always yells man or manly, but that's fine. "so maelstrom," he said with air quotes "where and what color."

Suddenly the rain cloud dispersed and naruto perked up and pointed at his left bicep and stated with obvious glee, "orange!" Makorav placed it on his arm before turning toward his guild who he noticed had large colorful circles infront of them.

"Those must be magic circles," Naruto thought in awe.

Next was something that made naruto feel slightly nostalgic as makorav's head expanded to about the same size as iruka's demonic yelling head jutsu or whatever he called it and shouted "STOP FIGHTING YOU BUNCH OF GAKIS HAVEN'T YOU NOTICED OUR GUEST.

All fighting stopped in fear of the master's wrath and interest in their new guest. "Now that you have calmed down meet our newest guild member, Naruto Uzumaki." Everyone's eyes were now on him and he noticed a few girls lick their lips with a hungry look in their eye, he didn't really understand the look so he ignored it and said "yo." Like Kakashi would.

Suddenly someone yelled, "party." And the guild went crazy again with lots of food and drinks coming out of nowhere.

POV Naruto

Over the next 2 hours I periodically met everyone that wasn't on a mission at the moment and learned more about them and they asked questions such as where I was from and I had to continually explain my "magic" as none knew what it was obviously as it wasn't from here, everyone was friendly but the pink haired natsu challenged me to a fight which I assumed was because wanted to be acknowledged just like I was when I first became a quote "mage."

I told natsu I was tired and we could fight the next morning after getting settled in and he readily agreed saying it was a step toward beating someone named erza and finding his father igneel. I left the guild and found a nice apartment with 2 bedrooms, a large living room/kitchen and a small balcony that overlooked a small river that went through the town. I paid my land lord 150,000 jewels for the month and head back to the guild only to find the last few people leaving and mira cleaning.

I started cleaning up with mira despite her protests that I didn't need to. After we finished cleaning I offered to walk her home, she refused stating her brother training his magic behind the guild and he would take her. I merely nodded and headed home thinking how crazy this whole situation was and fell asleep happy without a single worry for the first time since he was little.

The next morning I found myself facing natsu who according to mira was raised by a dragon who taught him dragon slayer magic, which I didn't understand, why would a dragon teach someone who to defeat it, it doesn't make any sense.

But apparently it meant that flames would only strengthen him, thank god that flames are my worse elemental attacks. We were surrounded by a bunch of guild members who wanted to see what the new guy could do. Master even agreed to ref the match wanting to see a lost magic.

Master looked at both of us before asking are you ready? Natsu nodded eagerly, ready to fight a new opponent. I however asked for a sec and slowly reached into my pouch and everyone watched with high anticipation as I pulled out… a book, nearly everyone including natsu face vaulted.

Natsu got up and yelled "what the hell are you reading for were going to fight." I just looked up and said "I wanted to know how the plot develops, come attack it doesn't make a difference." Everyone thought the same thing he is either a masochist, overly cocky, or just that good. Not many were thinking the last considering natsu was pretty strong.

Master was on the inside was laughing his off in one move naruto just pissed off natsu and will be 10 times more likely to make mistakes, it also has the added effect of making him look awesome as he beats up natsu while reading, it's genius.

Natsu fed up with me underestimating him charged straight at me just like I did to kakashi way back when. I stopped his punch with my palm then he sent another punch with his other hand but this time it was on fire. Not particularly wanting to get burned I sidestepped to the right grabbed his forearm with my free hand spun him around and tossed him across the clearing never taking my eyes away from the book.

He starred at me with disbelief along with most of the guild as I continued to read my book. I turned the page and looked up at him and decided give some advice. "you definitely have potential to be really strong but you are too emotional. emotion is good when it drives us to get better, to improve so you can protect yourself and people that are precious to you, but you allow your emotion to take full control and attacked without thinking because I intentionally provoked you by reading."

"Fighting lesson 1, don't allow anything your opponent say or does make you make stupid decisions. Now this time come, use your brain to make a plan and use the drive of your emotions to complete it."

I stood there for 10 seconds before he charged again, this time with both fists aflame, I put my book away as I no longer needed it. He sent his right fist at my face and I easily deflected it he quickly followed with his left and I wondered if actually he had a plan or if he was just charging again.

He went for a right punch again and I instinctively moved to block but he surprised me by switching to a flaming kick mid punch. It had happened rather quick to where if I wasn't the fastest person on my planet with reflexes to match he probably would have landed a hit, but I was. So I grabbed his leg and once again spun and threw but, in midair natsu spun around to face me put his hand to his mouth a magic circle appeared in front of him and he shot large torrent of hot looking flames at me yelling, "Fire Dragon's Roar."

It was the first sight of my magic as I blurred my hand through signs that were meaningless to the crowd and palmed the ground with my hands and an earth wall sprung out to block the flames. I created a shadow clone to take my spot behind the wall and I myself sunk into the ground.

The wall dropped for the clone to see tired yet determined looking natsu the clone smiled, "good you understand lesson 1 now lesson 2 is always have a backup plan which you won't have time to demonstrate due to lesson 3 which is…" two hand shot out of the ground and grabbed natsu's ankles. I then pulled him down yelling "double suicidal decapitation."

It buried him from the neck down and I popped of the ground as my clone poofed and I said "don't let your opponent get behind or below you. Do you give up." Natsu struggled a bit finding he couldn't move before complying and I popped him out of the ground.

He thanked me for the advice, which surprised me. Before he suddenly yelled that, "he would get stronger and beat me and Erza before running off with his flying cat to go train," which didn't surprise me.

I turned toward the crowd and they looked surprised that I had pretty much manhandled him but happy at my attitude toward helping him grow. Master in particular had a look of pride in how I handled a slightly younger and less powerful member. "So mira, you think you can make some ramen?" Everyone sweat dropped at the random question before congratulating him on his win and following Naruto to the guild talking and wondering about how strong their newest member could actually be.

Name-Age

Naruto -18

Natsu/Grey/Lucy-15

Erza/Mira/Cana -16

Rewritten as of August 13, 2013

Well that turned out well, this was a spur of the moment type thing. Sorry if the fight was boring but I tried to show natsu learning from naruto's words. Ill try to make more interesting fights but this was the explaining prologuey/starting chapter of the story. The next chapter will be a mission and a small s class trial do to lack of many potential s classers. This is two years before fairy tail cannon so that's why natsu is weak he starts to train like crazy to catch up to erza and naruto and will be slightly stronger then cannon. This will be pure NarutoxErza so don't ask for slash mira or cana or anyone else. Naruto is ooc due to the war and hundreds of shadow clones reading. In other words naruto grew up. After the next chapter I will skip to phantom lord and go from there.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Mission and a New S-Class Mage

Naruto had been in the guild for about 3 weeks and if he was honest with himself he found that he liked fairy tail much more than he ever liked Konoha, he had a lot more fun both on missions and off with all the brawls and parties, the people were energetic, kind and fun.

He made quick friends with Natsu and Grey, taking pleasure in whacking them for fighting. Natsu reminded him of himself before the war… and didn't refuse all of his challenges, but limited them to 4 times a week.

Naruto also became friends with master who loved pervy sage's icha icha series which I found in my personal belongings scroll. Mira and Elfman were kind although Elfman reminded him to much of guy and lee a bit with all that talk of manliness and use of physical fighting.

Cana became a good drinking buddy as neither of them could really get drunk and they even went on a date, which nothing happened romantically and they both decided on remaining drinking/poker friends.

The only S-class mage he had met was Laxus who was in his opinion an ass, when Naruto offered his hand the man merely scoffed and muttered that weaklings weren't worth his time.

Naruto woke as sunlight shone through a gap in the blinds he glared at the window for a minute before getting up out of bed and looking at the clock, to his surprise it was already 12 o'clock, he couldn't remember the last time he had slept in. So decided he'd better get dressed and go over to the guild.

After a nice breakfast… or lunch whatever you call eating pancakes at noon, Naruto found himself in front of the guild doors but scared to open them. He couldn't hear anything inside at all which had never happened before. Preparing for whatever lied beyond he pushed open the doors to find the guild hall nearly empty except for Mira who smiled and waved before going back to cleaning some cups, Macao and Wakaba who were drinking and playing cards, and Master who was reading icha icha violence with a perverted blush on his face letting loose a giggle every few seconds.

Sitting on a bar stool between Macao and where master was sitting on the bar he asked Mira for some water, taking a sip he thanked Mira in his usual exuberant tone and asked, "Where is everyone? I've never seen the guild this empty."

Mira decided to answer, "Everyone is on jobs, the S-class Promotion test is in 2 weeks so everyone is doing as many jobs as they can hoping to elected to participate."

Naruto poked Macao, "Why aren't you guys out there?"

With out looking up from there game they spoke simultaneously, "I'm married."

Naruto merely snorted "what about you Mira?"

She just gave me her sweet smile while Wakaba snorted, "I'm already an S-class mage I just stopped taking missions after…" Naruto looked up to see she was almost in tears. "My sister died."

Naruto gave her what he hoped was an apologetic look, "Mira, I didn't mean to bring back bad memories, I…"

Mira cut him off wiping her eyes, "It's okay you didn't know, I just miss her." Naruto nodded understanding, as a war veteran, the pain she was feeling.

Naruto trying to change the subject spoke again, "So would I be eligible for this year's trail?" while he enjoyed the current missions it would be fun to get more of a challenge, even with all of the handicap seals he had on, most fights were way too easy. Or, perhaps fighting monster like people and in a war had turned him into a monster himself… yeah probably that.

Mira shrugged looking over at Master who was still absorbed in the book, annoyed by his antics Mira bonked his head, "wha, what Mira?"

Mira just shook her head, "Naruto was wondering if he could be in this year's S-class trail."

The short man put the book down and popped his back into place, "I won't nominate him, I haven't seen you fight other than those fights with Natsu but Natsu isn't S-class material yet. An S-class mage of fairy tail has to be able to handle almost anything and stand above the rest in strength, speed, intelligence, and heart. I haven't known you long enough to know if you are a good candidate but I was impressed with your fights with natsu, although, if you go on a mission with an S-class mage and get his or her nomination you would be able to participate."

Naruto nodded in consent, "So who are the other S-class members?"

Mira spoke up again, "Erza, Mystogen, Laxus, and Guildarts."

Macao decided to speak up again, "well you and Laxus got off on the wrong foot so to speak, Guildarts is on a long term mission for the foreseeable future, no one has even seen Mystogen besides master, which leaves Erza." He shifted uncomfortably at the end.

Naruto's trained eyes caught this "Is she bad, I know Natsu and Grey go on about how scary she is but she cant be that bad can she?"

Macao merely shifted in his seat and remained quiet seemingly fearing that she would hear him and punish him when Mira spoke, "Erza is a good person she is loyal and kind." Then she muttered something that sounded like really pretty but naruto wasn't sure.

Master seemed to have heard and giggle perversely as an idea formed in his head, "maybe you'll fall in love like the two in this book, the young strong spiky haired blond Kinato and the stunning sexy redhead Mushina."

Naruto blushed as Mira whacked the pervert in the head before the two names clicked in his head, "wait, did you say Kinato and Mushina?"

Makerov nodded extending his arm with titan magic to prevent mira from taking his new favorite book. Naruto's hand clenched and he yelled out "that perverted idiot!" Everyone turned toward him surprised at the random outburst, suddenly rather embarrassed by the stares Naruto explained, "my parents names are Minato and Kushina, My stupid perverted godfather wrote that book based off my parents… eww I really hope almost none of that ever happened."

An Awkward silence entered the room as nobody had anything to say. Eventually Mira started humming a pleasant tune banishing the silence, Naruto joined the card game much to their noticeable ire. But, seeing as Naruto's luck was even better than Cana's it was understandable, after 30 minutes of being cleared out Macao and Wakaba decided they needed to take a job as they had just lost their pocket money for the month and it was only the 8th of July.

Seeing as Master was preoccupied, Naruto made conversation with the only other person currently in the guild, "So Mira tell me more about different ranks and what does being S-Class entail?"

"It's a title more than anything but, it allows you to go up to the second floor. That's where the S-class missions are held. There are 3 types of S-class mages and 3 types of S-class missions, Erza and I are currently intiate S-class mages so we can take normal S-class missions, Laxus and Mystogen are mid S-class and can take ten year missions if they want, and our ace Guildarts is one of the few high S-class in the country and is currently taking a hundred year mission which is a job that nobody has been able to complete in a hundred years. And Master is one of the ten wizard saints, which are the ten strongest mages in Fiore."

Naruto looked at master in a new light before he simply smirked, "Guildarts sounds like a fun fight, tell me about the others, Mystogen and them."

To his surprise she actually blanched, "fighting Guildarts is anything but fun. I thought it would be fun too, he completely destroyed me. He's a great guy though, one of the nicest you'll ever meet but he's not good at holding back and sometimes his magic slips out. He tends to just walk through walls rather than use doors…"

Naruto laughed in his head, it sounded just like A. "Laxus is always moody, but he used to be nice. His attitude went downhill after his father was kicked out of the guild for dark mage activities. He uses lightning magic."

"I don't know anything about Mystogen, he doesn't speak with anyone but master and he puts everyone to sleep whenever he comes for a jobs… I used to use takeover magic like my brother but, I took over demons rather than beasts." "Erza is like I said kind and loyal, but strict on most people in the guild as master doesn't really punish anyone. I feel like she has another side to her that she hides. She always wears armor and is the country's best requip mage I know of."

At Naruto's questioning look she explained, "Requip magic allows the users to store weapons and bring them out at any time with magic. Erza takes it to a whole new level and is the only person who can requip different armors and her fighting style uses different swords and armors with various effects."

Naruto smiled putting his hand on his sword, "I haven't had a good sword fight in a while, every bandit with one so far has no idea what they were doing and I haven't needed to actually use my sword yet."

"She should be back today her mission wasn't to hard this time so she will probably take you on a mission if you ask."

Naruto POV

As if to prove Mira right, the doors opened and a beautiful woman stepped in looking around in confusion, she had long scarlet hair, creamy white skin, dark brown eyes and lightly colored lips that I couldn't help but want to kiss. She wore armor like Mira said with a straight sword on her hip, below the chest armor she wore a… skirt? A bit strange but she pulled it off well with her long smooth legs. She also had matching gauntlets on her hands and steel boots that went to her shins. I had to fight off a blush, this girl looked just like the girl kami transformed into and I wondered if she was laughing her ass off in heaven and if she planned this on purpose.

She spoke in a smooth authoritive yet feminine voice, "Hey Mira, Master, where is everyone." She suddenly looked at me appraisingly, "and who is this?"

Master was still out of it, maybe I shouldn't have given him that book. It was mira who responded, "Everyone is away on missions because of the S-class trails in a few weeks, and this is…"

I spoke up, "Naruto Uzumaki, I joined 3 weeks ago. It's a pleasure to meet another member of my new guild."

Her eyes lit up in remembering something, "you're the new member I heard about on the way back, saving a caravan from a group of 500 thieves alone. I'm Erza Scarlet."

I sweat dropped at the exaggerated rumor, it was only like 25 bandits yet everyone seemed to think it was 500 for some reason, stupid press. Somewhere a man named Jason sneezed before yelling coooolllll. "Mira and I were actually just talking about you and the other S-class mages, I know you just got back from a mission, might be tired, and just met me, but I was hoping you would take me on a mission to evaluate whether or not I can participate in the exams. We don't have to go right now but just in the next few days."

The stunning woman studied me for a moment before her eyes laid on my sword which leaned against the counter next to me, "that's a beautiful katana you have… do you know how to use it?"

I just smirked, "I don't carry it around for intimidation, if I wanted that I use this sword." With that I unseal the kubikiribocho (zabuza's sword) I received from Mei after the war as a gift. Everyone including master seemed stunned by the very large sword and even more so that I was holding it straight out with one hand without any noticeable effort. As quickly as I brought it out it was back in a seal on my palm with a poof of smoke. "Anyway would you like to go on a mission together."

Master giggled over in his spot but I just ignored him. She looked at master for a moment before nodding, "I suppose I could take you on a mission, if you can take on 500 bandits by yourself then you are probably ready to at least try and become S-class." She went over to the board but sighed, "There aren't anymore missions. Master!"

Master surprisingly looked up from his book, "Yes, Erza-chan."

"Naruto wishes me to take him on a mission to evaluate him but there aren't any regular missions, will you allow him to go on a S-class with me?"

Master rubbed his chin in what I dubbed his thinking position, "yeah sure you two have fun." He started giggling in a manner to similar to Jiraiya for my liking, "but not too much fun."

Erza and I blushed scarlet as Mira finally took his book and whacked him on the head with it before reading it. As she read she got more and more red faced before she uppercut master with surprising strength yelling, "Pervert! Master you're not allowed to read this anymore, it puts too many thoughts in your head." Master pouted in a way a man his age shouldn't but only received a firm glare before muttering fine and drooped his head like a defeated man.

I looked up, blush dissipating, as Erza's voice returned to her, "Anyway, I'll meet you at the train station in an hour with a mission picked out so go get anything you need now." I nodded still feeling a light tinge on my cheeks and headed home to take a cold shower.

An hour later I was sitting on a bench waiting for Erza to show up. I had everything I needed in scrolls in my jonin jacket along with my weapon now at my hip, my 3 pouches, and a few blank scrolls for fuinjutsu. I turned to see erza rolling a ridiculously large cart of luggage behind her, "You going on a mission or are you moving."

She just chuckled, "people always stare at me oddly because of how much stuff I bring but you're the first to actually say anything. I like you already, you aren't deathly afraid of me because I'm the Titania of fairy tail."

I smiled knowing the feeling, after the war I had gained a reputation as being extremely strong and that equaled being unapproachable for most people. Other than the friends I made before and during the war, I didn't really get to meet new people other than the other kage and their right hand men, "You haven't give me a reason to fear you. So, you're an S-class mage it doesn't mean your not a kind person. I don't like to judge based off popular belief, I judge people myself and I believe if you open up to people they'll accept you."

She stared at me, "thanks for that, sometimes people treat me as some sort of monster or even sometimes an unmovable god and forget I'm a person too."

The train whistled meaning it would leave in 5 min. "Would you like help with your luggage."

She shook her head, "I always have this with me when I travel. I can handle the weight."

I rubbed the back of my head, "that's not what I meant." I pulled out a blank scroll, unraveled it in midair and wrote a large storage seal with practiced ease before tossing it above her stuff. With 4 quick hand signs the luggage was sucked into the scroll attracting her attention. The scroll rolled itself in midair before falling down to Erza who caught it with her armored hand. "is that your magic? Some type of mixture of Picto Runes magic?"

"It's hard to explain we should probably get on the train I'll tell you more about me in there."

She nodded and we went and found an empty compartment in the train. We sat across from each other comfortably listening as the train started up and began moving, "So Naruto tell me more about your Magic and yourself."

She seemed… nervous, she probably didn't socialize too often and felt awkward. But I was good at making friends, or so I have been told so I decided to be myself, "I'll do this like my first sensei did, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like training, ramen, swords, a good fight, and the colors orange… and scarlet." I glanced at her shining hair and her face flushed a little at the subtle compliment, "I dislike arrogance, disloyalty, and the prejudices that everyone subconsciously makes." I paused and looked out the window, "my hobbies are training, looking at clouds during the day and the stars at night, and going to the beach. My dream for the future is…" I almost said to become hokage but paused thinking it over, "to become a wizard saint. I'm the only person in the world who practices my magic which is a lost magic called Ninjutsu, what I did you're your luggage was a variant called Fuinjutsu, your turn."

She seemed a little surprised I put her on the spot but answered anyway, "I'm Erza Scarlet… I like strawberries, strawberry cheesecake, armors, swords, a good challenge, and the color blue and yellow. I dislike slavers…" her eyes zoned out for a moment something I didn't miss, "… dark guilds, traitors, and loneliness. I like to practice with and take care of my swords and armors, go on missions, and stop Natsu and Grey's fights." I snorted in agreement as that was very fun, "my dream…"

She got really quiet and seemed to be sad all of a sudden, "you don't need to tell me if you don't want to, but if you ever want to talk I'm there."

She looked at me, "sure… thanks again." We both sat there in silence for a while the rhythmic sound of the train moving on tracks and the loud talking from other compartments was the only noise heard when she spoke again, "I should tell you about the mission, here." She pulled out a piece of paper with the job request on it, "its rather simple A-class mission just help a small town with a bandit problem, its probably just A-class because the bandits have a mage leader or because there isn't a train station there, so we have to walk."

I nodded but inwardly disagreed, as a ninja I knew clients often lied or didn't give you all of the details so as to not scare you off or to pay less. But then again, this was a different world and perhaps it would be a simple mission, either way I would be ready to protect myself and Erza if need be. Realizing this she said A-class I spoke, "I thought there weren't any normal missions?

she replied, "one showed up on the board before I left." I simply nodded before changing the subject to food.

1 hour on a train and 5 hours of walking later we finally reached the place just after sundown, maybe Erza was right maybe it was A-class just because of the walk. Not that I didn't enjoy the long walk with my beautiful, temporary partner. Erza and I spent most of the time talking about different adventures although I had to edit most of mine to be legal here and be mages rather than shinobi, I felt she was starting to be more relaxed around me than she was when we first met. She was also being a lot less rigid and formal than before and I definitely like her more with her armor off, in a figurative manner of speech, although I don't deny that I wouldn't mind her literally taking her armor off either.

The town was pretty empty looking from the streets but I could sense the people either sitting of sleeping in their home, I could taste the fear and despair in the air. It brought memories of the wave mission back, the feelings I couldn't identify at the time but now knew like the back of my hand. These people had given up hope, that's why it was an A-class mission.

We approached a large building that was the mayor's building and opened the door. Heading inside we found the place quiet except for a woman probably the secretary stamping papers and the muffled sound of a heated argument in the room behind her. Suddenly a young teen probably 13 or 14 stormed out of the office, with a short glance he went past us, and out into the town.

Turning our attention back to the mayor and secretary who were now looking at us, "are you the mages we put a request for?"

Erza stepped forward, "Yes, I am S-class mage Erza Scarlet S-class mage and this is Naruto Uzumaki from fairy tail. We're here for the request you put out about bandits."

The Secretary and the Mayor looked at each other for a moment before looking back, "the situation has changed since we sent the request it is now S-class, I'm glad the Titania of Fairy Tail has come to help but will you and your friend be able to handle a whole dark guild?"

I was unfazed as this was my normal luck on missions, Erza looked at me slightly unsure as to whether I could handle it having never seen me fight before she had the right, after all she wouldn't want the death of a comrade and newly found friend on her head. "Tell us more about the mission, which dark guild is it."

The mayor sighed, "It started about a month ago when some trade caravans and travelers that came here started disappearing outside town, you're lucky to have not ran into an ambush. At first we thought it was just bandits but then we started finding the missing bodies, they were all mutilated and experimented on. According to our local doctor they were alive during those experiments which means there might still people held hostage. A week ago a bunch of men in masks came to town and took several people off the streets in broad daylight. When local law enforcement tried to stop them… one of them killed all of the police with one attack, he had to be the leader. After killing them he started some type of chanting and the people he killed got back up and helped him kidnap a few more people including my wife." The mayor clenched his eyes shut keeping the tears away, "I heard one of them say something about devil's hand before they left."

I sighed why couldn't I ever get normal missions, what was with all of the undead I had to fight? But, after fighting the edo tensei during the war this would probably be simpler. But, the main villain sounded too much like orochimaru and his experiments for comfort. I hope he wouldn't be as annoying as that snake. Seeing as Erza was still looking troubled I answered, "I'll be fine Erza." I gave her my bright smile that I knew would inspire confidence in anyone from past experience. She smiled back.

An hour later after having gotten a general direction from the mayor we were searching through the woods to the west of the town when I suddenly stopped, "we're being watched."

Erza blinked, "I didn't sense anything."

I nodded in agreement, "I didn't sense anything either, but I can smell and hear them moving. They aren't alive whatever they are."

Suddenly large crystal orbs came flying toward us from every direction and Erza cursed before glowing, switching to a more protective armor and yelled, "Lacrima bombs."

Trying not looking at Erza's glowing silhouette I simply spun in a similar way to Neji and waved both of my hands, using wind manipulation to make a large gust to blow all of the bombs away. "Get ready," I unsheathed my sword and got into my basic stance. Erza did the same facing the opposite direction when a bunch of bodies, all of them rotting and with add limbs/weapons to make them slightly more deadly charged at us from all directions at low chunin speed. There had to be a few hundred dead people charging us and there weren't that many missing people which meant he had done this somewhere else as well.

Pushing the thought away I focused on slashing, ducking, and weaving through the now puppet like dead bodies while also staying close enough to Erza so I could… slash I sliced one in half just as it was about to get Erza from behind. She grunted in thanks as I turned to face a new opponent, deflecting an axe turned arm I sliced the persons head off vowing to save anyone who hasn't been turned into this yet and stop whoever was doing this.

Suddenly shots went off from those gun things that Alzack and Bisca use and the zombies started coming in with guns attached to their limbs. Putting my sword away and running through handsigns I raised a thick circular earth wall that took the magic shots for Erza and I, taking it a step further I went through a few more handsigns and called out Futon: Shinku no ha(wind style vacuum blades.) The wind cut and shot the earth like shrapnel into the zombies and took out about 60 of them. The few stragglers on the opposite side of the blast were quickly taken care of and we got a slight break, "I'm adding necromancy to the list of things I dislike."

Erza grimaced probably not used to seeing so much death during missions, "this is more bodies than people missing…"

I nodded, "they have been kidnapping people for a long time who ever they are." My head snapped to the side when I felt a magic signature moving through the ground away from us. I cursed, how could I have missed him, I needed to train my energy sensing abilities to be better without sage mode which I still had to relearn do to the difference in energy. Erza noticed the sudden movement and I explained, "There was a scout watching the fight, he headed to the north I didn't notice until just now."

Trusting my judgment we headed north following a small river up into the mountains, no wonder these guys never got caught they were in the middle of nowhere about 10 miles northeast of the town. We eventually stopped to set up camp for the night as the stars were already out and it was cold. "umm… how do I get my stuff out of this."

I blushed embarrassed at my forgetfulness at times, "just think of what you want and put some magical energy into the seal… err drawings it will come out." It would, I checked to make sure they worked with magic using Natsu as a test dummy because he could just eat an explosion if one occurred.

Erza did as I instructed and to my surprise strawberry cake came out, "Strawberry cake? How much of the luggage was food?"

She blushed, "about three quarters of it. I know that might seem kind of gross, but I eat a lot."

I put my hands up, "im not judging, after all," I pulled out a scroll labeled 'awesomely goodness' and out poofed a bowl of ramen, "the nice thing about seals is food doesn't go bad so I put them in my place too." I started a small fire with some wood I collected and cooked my meal.

She looked at me oddly after I ate about 10 bowls of ramen, "you really like ramen don't you?"

"Yep, and you my lovely lady are just as addicted to strawberry shortcake." I laughed at her look of realization that she had eaten just as much cake as I had ramen. Deciding that I had enough to eat I stood up, "Now you get to see another piece of my magic." She looked up from her cake with a curious expression and I went through a few hand signs slowly so she could watch before slamming my hand into the ground yelling, "Doton: Chikyu no ie (Earth Style: House of Earth.)

Earth walls rose around us along with an empty doorway, two stone beds, a table with chairs, and finally a roof folded itself out of the wall, blocking the night sky.

Erza seemed pleased with my work, picking a bed for herself on the left side before sitting on the bed she made a cute eep when the earth moved down with her weight like a normal bed chuckling I said, "the beds look and are made of earth, but they are similar to normal beds just a little less comfortable but good enough to get some sleep." Pulling out a brush I wrote a barrier seal to keep people and animals out, "there, people can't get in other than the two of us."

She seemed surprised, "your magic is very versatile isn't it? You can keep people out, but what about those… people we fought earlier."

I frowned having not thought of the raised dead, "I don't know if it will keep them out, but it will keep out any living thing even a bug. The house itself is still open to attack from the outside, if that happens the walls are strong enough to handle a few attacks and we will escape underground with one of my techniques. Is that okay with you?"

We laid down and I eventually heard her light breathing signaling her peaceful sleep, for the rest of the night I stayed awake thinking about the mission, the possibilities playing through my mind, then I thought about Fairy Tail, which led to thinking about the beautiful girl sleeping 10 feet away from me.

She had a complicated history just like me, I could just tell from the maturity she had for someone in their teens and more importantly her eyes, the type of eyes that had seen the worst of life but persevered. My brain put together a conclusion from everything I knew about her and her body language, she had been a slave at some point and perhaps someone she knew still was one. That had to be her dream, to free her friends having figured that out I decided to wait to say anything until an appropriate time appeared which wasn't likely, or waiting till she told me. For all I knew I could be wrong but, my gut had never let me down before especially not when my brain agreed. Eventually the sun started coming up and I went outside to make her and myself breakfast.

Erza's Monologue/POV

Erza woke up to a pleasant smell in the air and sat up. Looking around the small room she looked over to Naruto's bed only to find it empty, standing up in her armor she walked outside where she heard a sizzling noise and a crackling fire. There standing in his strange green vest stood the man she had met only yesterday cooking a meal for her, it was an odd thought for her as she spent most of her time alone on missions. She wasn't anti-social, she just didn't know how to interact with people in a non-business way and people tended to avoid her because of her strictness. Yet the man in front of her smashed through her shield getting her to tell more about herself in one day than most in the guild knew of her. He was kind and good with people that much was for sure… not to mention attractive. No, she shut the thoughts out of her mind, "I'm not looking for a man yet… besides I still have to save them… and he probably like someone like Mira or Cana more than someone like me."

Naruto POV

I heard a noise so I turned around to see Erza standing there still armor clad, looking a little drowsy or perhaps she was thinking I couldn't tell, "Morning Erza I almost finished breakfast. Did you sleep well?"

She nodded at me, "the bed was as comfortable as any I've been on."

I chuckled, "maybe that's because you sleep with armor on."

She didn't laugh but, she blushed, "it makes me feels safe."

I mentally questioned why she told me that, it was pretty personal thing to say. Maybe she was getting comfortable with my presence, "that's fine, I just think you would find beds more comfortable in clothes rather than metal armor." She shrugged in a non-committal manner and I dropped the subject, having finished cooking two decent sized omelets I hand her one and began to eat myself.

She took her first bite and her eyes widened before she dug in full-gusto, "You're a really good cook, wish I could cook like you or Mira. What is this by the way?"

I blinked, she didn't know what an omelet was… duh different worlds, there had to be foods here that didn't exsist in my world and food I could make that weren't here. "Mah mah Erza it's not that amazing, just an omelet and scrambled eggs. Though, I could teach you to cook some stuff, if you'd like. I know how to bake strawberry shortcake." I could see her mouth water at the prospect of homemade cake and I chuckled. "I take that as a yes?"

She nodded and we both stood up to clean up before setting off in the direction we thought we should go. An hour of walking later I could feel… something I wasn't really sure what it was but I led us into the canyon where I felt it prepared for anything.

Or maybe not, there were a bunch of dead men on the ground that matched the description of many of the known members of Devil's Hand according to Erza at least. There bodies were in a circle around 5 foot tall earth made staff that was sucking red beams of magic out of all the dead bodies around it into the red tip of the staff when someone started laughing like a demented person above us.

We both looked up to see two people, one of them a man with black hair, wearing a jester costume laughing like crazy the other was an emotionless pink-haired girl around the age of twelve. The man spoke first, "hahahaha! More death, more sacrifice, more demons, Zeref will be reborn! He will, night mother has spoken so." The man cackled again, "awaken demon of Zeref tell us how to restore your master." A magic circle appeared next to him and shot at the staff which was hit. Not breaking like you would it expect the staff grew and grew more until it was about three fourths of the size of a biju. A pair of eyes opened on the large staff before the object stretched and transformed into what the man said it was, a demon.

The creature was large, grey and made of stone with two large horns on its face which held an angry expression on its bull-like head, the body was humanoid but without a reproductive organ (that would be disturbing) and with a long tail that looked rather sharp. The creature grunted and said a very cliché monster line, "Who dares disturb a demon of Zeref's own creation the great and mighty Tamaishi."

The jester jumped around excitedly yelling for the great demon's attention, "Me, me the assassin of Tartaros along with the youngest member of Grimore Heart. We awakened you and brought sacrifices so as to learn how to revive your own master, lord Zeref will return!"

The large demon merely tried to squash them but displaying more skill than he let on, the jester from Tartaros dodged the quick strike along with the young girl of Grimore Heart who still remained silent. The creature turned its attention towards us, "sacrifices… very well I shall kill you all!"

Erza and I separated as Tamaishi shot boulders out of its body in every direction. I saw the Jester and girl engage Erza seeing her as the greater threat of the two of us, which left me the demon. Not wanting to destroy very much of the surrounding nature or hurt Erza I started of with mid sized attacks of earth, water, wind and lightning. Every attack literally did nothing and the creature didn't react, "puny attacks won't harm me, the only ones who have ever been able to harm me are Acnologia and lord Zeref himself." I silently agreed and jumped to the right to avoid another barrage of rocks. I lifted my hand above my head and formed the technique of my father's creation, then having created a perfect rasengan I started to mix in sharp wind blades creating my first original technique… well besides the sexy jutsu. The bell like screeching attracted the other three peoples' attention as they watched me chuck the head sized rasenshuriken at the creature's chest.

When the rasenshuriken hit, it expanded to the size of Tamaishi's chest in a large orb shaped maelstrom of cutting winds that appeared to be consuming the demon which howled in pain. I saw all three of the mages mouths drop considerably at the deadly attack in the corner of my eye before the two dark mages jumped away from Erza and by extension myself. Erza chased them out of sight as the winds and dust settled leaving me the sight of the large demon still standing clutching its chest that had large deep gashes running across it. I smiled at the creature which yelled, "how dare you, I will kill you."

The largest magic circle I had seen to date appeared above the creatures head and I went through 40 handsigns, "Raiton: Ni-Juu Piasudoragon (Lightning Style: Twenty Piercing Dragons)/ Oni Mahou: Hyaku Man Ryusei (Demon Magic: One Million Meteors.) the demon and I called out the name of our chosen attack as my twenty large lightning dragons weaved their way through hundreds of thousands of small house sized rocks toward the demon. I was following close as I could after my dragons through the nearly impossible to navigate asteroid field, directing them toward the cracks in the creature. Several times I was nearly crushed but survived only to luck and wind manipulation to change directions. I had lost 2 dragons to the demon's attack when I could finally see it behind all of the falling rocks about 200 yards away I launched the remaining dragons at a faster speed. Tamaishi saw this and shot more rocks from its outward pointed hands, the attack took out 5 more dragons which left 13 out of the original 20 which all struck the magnificent demon in my chosen locations across its body. The creature gave an unholy scream before cracking and falling apart. I dodged the last of the falling rocks before I stopped, panting like crazy, "ahh man I'm out of shape, damn it I'm tired, actually it might have been the lack of sleep the night before. I fell on my back and closed my eyes. I laid there for ten seconds when I heard a gasp. I opened my eyes to see Erza, "Hey Erza, are you okay, you hurt?"

She sat and bonked me on the head, "Yes, idiot I should be the one asking you that, you should have let me help." She paused a moment, "For leaving you alone with that demon please hit me."

I rolled my eyes, "Mah you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. You had your hands full yourself with those two mages, what happened to them anyway?"

She sighed, "they got away, the jester distracted me with those dead bodies. He was the necromancer, he also used some kind of invisibility technique. The girl used some weird magic that shot swords that I couldn't block, they weren't physical but they hurt me directly through my nerves, or so she said." She looked at me, "why didn't you tell me you were this strong, you're stronger than Laxus I would think. Maybe even on Guildart's level."

I looked away, "I don't much care for boasting, like I said I don't like arrogance in people even when the person is strong." I looked over at her "Plus I wanted to see the look on your face when I showed you how strong I am, and it was totally worth it. Though it means the dark guilds know about me now…"

She somehow managed to face vault while sitting down, "well then… when we get back I will recommend you for promotion, we will have to tell master so he can hold a council with the other guild masters to decide what to do about Grimore Heart and Tartaros. And you owe me cooking lessons for being an ass by the way."

I snorted, "I would have done the last one anyway if you'd like." I looked around the once beautiful canyon and sweatdropped, "umm wow I did a lot of collateral damage, am I going to be in trouble with master."

She looked around before her face dropped, "Not you too. Why is everyone in or guild so destructive." She sighed, "master doesn't usually care and in this case there isn't any owned property that will cause paperwork which means he will care even less."

We made it back to the town, saying we completed the mission and received a large reward in return. As we went to the guild I told her in detail most of my skills and in turn she told me her own, which impressed me, I always held skilled weapon users in high regard. The more I learned about this woman the more I liked her.

The next day we arrived in magnolia after the 4 day mission and went to tell master about what happened. After explaining the mission, about the members of Grimore Heart and Tartaros, and the demon that was defeated. The old man accepted Erza's promotion request and we came out of his office and went to sit down when I got really tired and everyone started dropping like flies. Recognizing an illusion I brought my hands up into a ram seal, "kai." Then in sudden clarity I felt something I hadn't the whole time I had been there, chakra, I felt someone else's chakra. I got excited, another person from my universe when I stopped the man walked in, he was oddly dressed for a mage with lots of dark clothing, he wore a blank headband and only his eyes were visible because of his shirt's collar.

I was nearly ready to attack for putting an illusion on my friends when master spoke tiredly, "Mystogen, do you really need to do this every time you come for a mission?"

He spoke in a clear masculine voice, "Hai master, you know why." He turned to me, "who are you?"

I looked him over deciding on a course of action. "Naruto Uzumaki, nice to meet you."

He nodded heading over to the request board and picked one before showing master, "I'm taking this one."

He turned to leave but I put a hand on his shoulder, "where are you from? You don't have a drop of magic in you, just those staffs."

His eyes widened and he said, "come with me."

I followed him toward the door and Master called out, "release the spell."

Mystogen nodded without turning back and counted down as we left the building, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1." We both disappeared in a burst of speed/ magic.

In the guild

Everyone slowly got up as grey muttered, "was it him again."

Erza got up and looked next to her to see that Naruto was gone and spoke up, "Hey where did Naruto go?"

Master remained quiet, "your new friend seemed pretty interested I little misty. He even managed to stay awake and went with Mystogen to talk. Its good to know there are some worthy members of this guild unlike the rest of you."

Natsu yelled angily, "Laxus don't treat us like trash, get down here and fight me."

Everyone thought he might do it for a moment before Laxus burst out laughing, "Still the same Natsu, you wouldn't be able to lay a finger on me and that's no fun. Challenge me again in ten years."

With that final word he disappeared in a bolt of lightning, "Laxus, that jerk." Natsu muttered angrily.

Erza spoke the question on his mind, "Naruto went with Mystogen?"

Master merely nodded, "yeah they wanted to talk about something, its not my business to tell you." Everyone started talking to each other about what they could be doing.

On a hill outside Magnolia town I followed Mystogen who stopped just in front of me, "you ask where I am from, what do you mean by that?"

I stared at his back, "what dimension are you from? You have no magic like people from this dimension but have chakra like me, but seem unaware of it." He turned and looked at me, I knew from all my time with kakashi his eyes were questioning me. "Chakra is the combination of spiritual and physical energy in the body and permits shinobi like myself to perform feats of superhuman powers."

He contemplated this for a moment, "you say I have this energy in my body? Would others from my world have it as well?"

I nodded, "yes, now answer my question where are you from?"

He replied, "I am from Edolas, a parallel of this world where the people don't have magic… but apparently have this chakra you speak of. My father is king of that world and decided to take magical energy from here so as to save our world. I disagreed with him and came here to stop the anima, which are the things that take the energy to my dimension in the form of a lacrima." We were both silent for a moment, "could you teach me to use my energy?"

I felt his chakra network searching for any differences or problems, not feeling any I spoke, "I suppose I can take on an apprentice. Just tell me one thing, why do you hide from the guild? Im not from here and I don't hide."

He was quiet for a moment, "I am not like you, I have a counterpart on this Earth and he has a past with a member of the guild. I find it easier this way."

"fair enough now, I don't want to teach you the basics of chakra so." I made a clone, "he will teach you basic information and exercises until you learn them, Ja ne." with that I shunshinned outside the guild building and went in to have a good time with friends.

2weeks later in the Fairy Tail guild hall

I wasn't really surprised that everyone showed up so early. It was 7 o'clock in the morning but it was the day of the S-Class trail and everyone wanted to know who was nominated. I, despite being here for only 5 weeks, knew I was one of the nominees as I was with Erza when she nominated me, but I didn't say anything to anyone else as technically I wasn't supposed to know.

Master walked up to the railing on the second floor, Erza and Laxus just behind him, "Alright settle down you brats!" the talking instantly stopped and I nearly laughed at Natsu's expression of excitement and anxiousness. "We all know why were here so I will get straight to the point. This year's S-class trail has three participant and therefore it will not be held on tenrohira island like usual but instead in the stadium later today, I'm sure you all noticed the posters on the way here." He paused, "Laxus, Erza, and myself have all nominated one person who we believe is ready to take the trail. Laxus Dreyer has voted Freed Justine as a nominee for S-Class mage. Erza Scarlet has voted Naruto Uzumaki as a nominee for S-Class mage. I have vote Cana Alberona as a nominee for S-Class mage, the people named will be expected at the stadium at 12 o'clock pm today where I will tell you the task. The rest of you and the whole of magnolia will be allowed to watch from the stadium seats, and will be a fundraiser for all of the crap you brats have destroyed on accident…"

I heard a groan from both Natsu who was 'all fired up' literally and Grey who had managed to lose most of his clothes again, as pointed out by Cana. "Naruto fight me."

I snorted in amusement, "not today Natsu I need to prepare for the trails." He actually accepted this as a valid reason not to fight before heading off to pick a fight with Grey much to my gratitude.

5 hours later I was standing with the two other contestants for S-Class in the middle of a decent sized stadium that I had never noticed in Magnolia before now. The crowd was large, most people enjoyed watching mages fight live and on lacrima I assumed. I looked at Cana and she appeared really nervous but completely sober, the man Freed was calm mostly but, I detected light anxiety in his eyes. The crowd cheered wildly as Master, Erza, and Laxus walked out onto an over hanging ledge above us, "Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the first publically held Fairy Tail S-Class trial." The crowd cheered louder, "Since there are only three members of Fairy Tail in this Years trail they will be having a three way brawl!" he paused as the crowd grew louder, "the three participants of this years contest are, veteran member of Fairy Tail and card mage, Cana Alberona." The crowd cheered and many men got a 'problem' as Cana showed up on a large screen in her usual bikini top, gave a sexy smirk, and winked, "A long time member of Fairy Tail and member of the famous Raijinshu (thunder god tribe,) Freed Justine." Freed replaced Cana on the screen and he gave a bow that caused a few girls who liked him to faint and the rest to cheer, "Lastly the newest member of Fairy Tail a man who moves like a intense maelstrom, Naruto Uzumaki." I saw my own face show up on the screen and I followed Cana's example by giving a sexy smile and waving, I heard several cries from girls throughout the stadium. That was a nice confidence boost. "Now the three of you will fight and the winner will fight Erza. The person who fights Erza will be judged by Laxus and yours truly to decide whether they are ready to be S-Class, losing to her doesn't mean you wont become S-class. The only rule is no maiming or killing. Now fight!"

All three of us jumped back Cana grabbed a deck of cards from her bag, Freed brought out his sword and I brought my hands together ready to make hands signs. Now I could have just ended it with my highest speed, this wasn't just a promotion exam, this was a show just like the chunin exam finals, meant to attract more business and show fairy tail's strength. Freed attacked first, sending one of his Dark Ecritures at Cana. This was a mistake as Cana immediately focused on retaliating on him and I joined her in a double teamed assault on the green haired man. Cana was using long range card attacks as I played with him using my sword cutting his hair smiggets at a time. He lasted pretty long I suppose, about 10 minutes before he left a very wide opening in his guard and whacked his sword away from him before stepping in, creating a weakened rasengan and slamming it into his stomach. The man spiraled into wall under Master and I turned my attention to dodging the attacks that were now headed for me, knowing the man was out but would be okay in about a week.

Cana launched bolts of lightning and pillars of earth at me as I flipped and sprung away. Going through a few handsigns I flipped to avoid a magic flare and while hanging upside down called my attack, "Suiton: Bakuhatsu Mizu Shogekiha (Water Style: Exploding Water Shockwave)" I spit out vast amounts of water toward Cana who immediately pulled a card from her deck that raised the Earth to a level just above where the giant wave crashed. I landed on top of the 5 foot layer of water much crowds awe and ran through more handsigns, "Suiton: Suiro no Jutsu (Water Style: Water Dragon Technique.

A large serpent dragon formed, swirling upward before hovering above my head allowing the crowd a good look at it. It surged forward and Cana thinking quickly shot a red beam out of one her cards that sunk into the charging dragon before exploding, showering her and the first few rows of seats in water.

Cana through four cards into the water and four pillars of earth rose around me before they started cackling with electricity and shot down at me… and the water I was standing on. Silently cursing I jumped into the air spinning, creating a wind shield to block the lightning. Falling back toward the sparking water I ran through another set of hand signs "Doton: Chirkyu Purattofomu (Earth Style: Earth Platform)" I spat out earth until there was a small platform floating on the water for me to stand on without being shocked. "Not bad Cana, not bad at all." I pouted, "one might think your really trying to hurt me."

She laughed, "You're one to talk with your crazy water dragon."

She proceeded to throw another volley of cards at me, these caused a large amount of wind and wind blades to come at me at high speeds to switch I scoffed, holding my hand out I merely deflected it with minor effort, "you shouldn't use wind against me, after all I'm a maelstrom." I put both my hands straight out to do a technique I created to imitate Nagato, "Futon: Shinra Tensei (Wind Style: Almighty Push.)" and that's what it was an almighty push that sent a large shockwave of water toward Cana who jumped off her platform onto one of the others that she made for her lightning attack. Getting up she sent red and green magic shots from a deck of cards that I danced out of the way of. Deciding I wanted to end it, I sent a wind blade that cut down all of the pillars before running through handsigns, "Raiton: Jibashi (Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder.) I slammed into the water and the whole pool of water lit up with electric sparks. Cana falling with the pillars had nowhere to go so I jumped up and caught her before she hit the water, "I win Cana, were still good right?"

She looked sad for a moment, "yeah were fine, I forfeit." The crowd roared in approval at my act of chivalry. I dropped her in the water playfully and she came up sputtering, "You big fat jerk." She grabbed my legs and tried to pull me down into the water but I didn't budge. "How are you doing that?"

I grabbed her hand and pulled her up, "it's a secret." She smacked me in the shoulder and I walked up the wall to Master and put her down. "So now I fight Erza-cha… I blushed embarrassed at my slip up which didn't go unnoticed by Master, who giggled, or Laxus who raised an eyebrow. Thankfully Erza was helping Cana with something and didn't notice. Master was about to comment before I gave him a shut up look.

I bowed to the cheering crowd before jumping down onto the water going through the signs for a jutsu, "Suiton: Kirigakure no jutsu (you should know this one)." All the water suddenly turned into a thick mist that spread throughout the whole stadium then I quickly manipulated the wind to move all of the water into the sky so people wouldn't get scared, on a side note it would probably rain tomorrow.

The ground was dry enough to fight and I was excited at the prospect of fighting another sword wielder. Erza walked through the normal entrance about 5 minutes later with her regular armor and sword equipped. Standing across from each other we both looked up at Master who announced, "Alright the winner of the free for all was Naruto Uzumaki, despite brilliant battle skills shown by Cana and Freed. Now Naruto will fight current S-class mage Erza Scarlet while Laxus and I decide whether or not he is ready for the jump up to S-Class. Begin!"

We stared each other down for a moment before launching at each other simultaneously, drawing and slashing our swords to lock in the middle in a quick test of strength in which I forced her back a step. She turned allowing my sword to run to the side of her before slashing at my front leg with her sword, to avoid being hit I jumped forward and over her in a front flip slashing downward only to be blocked and pushed away. I landed on my feet and sprung forward not giving her any chance to rest, she dodged an upward slash and countered, stabbing at me with a forward thrust I side stepped and jumped over her blade as she switched to a slashing motion half way through and we both locked blades again. All of this had taken about 8 seconds, which was fast… for a civilian, we both smirked and got faster and faster until the crowd of civilians were barely able to see us and even some of the mages couldn't follow. I continued to allow my body to control the blocking and pressing an offensive while my mind looked for openings in her stance or sword angle. We continued to hack and slash at each other neither gaining the upper hand, I saw her over step so I moved my leg behind hers and pushed against her sword with most of my strength. Instead of tripping like I thought she went into a back hand spring and separated from me nearly cutting my leg on the way. I was having fun and she looked like she was having fun, we were going low jonin speed, I wondered how she would do at high. I shot off like a rocket, she seemed only slightly surprised by the increase in speed and tried to adjust but I was overwhelming her. With a downward slash I thought I had her, only to be surprised when she dropped and rolled out of the way.

The girl glowed and I didn't attack, not wanting to run in blindly, when the glare went away… wow she was beautiful I had to stop an incoming boner through willpower alone, she was wearing an animal print top and bottom that didn't hide too much and rather than her long straight sword she held two daggers. This time she charged and I was slightly surprised by the increase in speed, she was moving borderline kage speed and I had to release my first resistance seal to match it swinging her two swords around in a practiced ease she had me constantly blocking slashes that ended up being bait for another slash. When I finally saw an opening again I took it, kicking straight out into her stomach which sent her about ten feet away before she found her bearings and landed in a crouch.

I put my mother's sword into a seal, unsealed seven swords tossing them into the air, each one landed in seemingly awkward positions and I settled into the stance that Killer B showed me several times, although I had to figure out how to move on my own back then. Everyone including Erza looked at me weirdly not expecting such a weird stance, on one leg I shot forward at the same speed as before startling her but she recovered in time to block two swords. I tossed, flipped, slashed, and stabbed the swords in a completely unpredictable way. Many slashes appeared on her arms and torso before one straight cut appeared on her cheek as she looked for a way out of the crazy dance of death. She looked up to see my foot coming down at her face and barely managed to jump back but when she landed I had a sword at her neck, back, stomach, side, and right thigh. "You're an excellent swordsman and I would love to spar with you after those cooking lessons."

She snorted, "that was pretty awesome, where'd you learn that?"

"from an old friend," I stated truthfully

"Hey Naruto, could you take the swords off of me," She asked.

I blushed as I had been enjoying being that close to her and reluctantly moved, "that was the most fun I've had in a while."

She smiled at me, "me too. Is there anything you can't do? I mean you cook, fight, build houses instantly, make friends, and I'm sure I missed something."

I took a mock thinking pose, "hmm, I can make solid clones of myself, teleport to a marked area, and hmm I got it, I can't fly… yet I'm working on it though." She giggled, it was the first time I had heard it and seen such a happy smile on her face. I think I fell in love with that laugh and smile at that moment or maybe not but, I knew for certain I wanted to see and hear it more already, to be the one to make her smile and laugh.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sudden roar of the crowd, had I missed something why were they so loud all of a sudden the match ended 5 minutes ago. I turned to Erza who smiled softly at me, "Congratulations, you are an S-Class Mage of Fairy Tail."

I looked into her honey brown orbs, "Thanks, Erza."

A/N: I know I took forever and I'm sorry but I hope the 10,497 word chapter makes up for it. If there are any mistakes, anything you don't understand, or questions then pm me.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Helping Friends, another new student

A week after my promotion to S-class I was sitting at the guild staring at Cana who had an extremely depressed air around her and was drinking any type of alcohol she could by the barrel load. This wouldn't be a problem normally, but the depressing mood she was giving off and the fact she was drinking faster and more barrels than usual clearly stated she had a problem. Seeing as no one else had really noticed because most of the people in the guild were preoccupied with whatever that individual did while at the guild I took upon myself to talk to her.

"Cana, what's up?" I sat next to the bikini clad brunette who turned toward me and hiccupped with a light alcohol blush on her face.

She growled in a playful yet very drunk way and said, "You know you're so damn sexy I just want to push you down and ride…" I, blushing like crazy, put my hand on her forehead and used a basic medical jutsu Shizune taught me to sober up granny Tsunade to get rid of most of the alcohol in her blood stream and make her sober. The alcohol blush disappeared from her face and she stared at me for a moment before blushing like mad and turned away, "umm sorry about that I…"

"I know you were rather drunk, its fine."

"okay, umm forget I said that."

I chuckled, "I suppose I'll try but, it's rather hard to forget an attractive woman saying that." She continued to look away from me but I could see her face was red and I decided to change the subject, "Anyway, do you want to tell me why you're trying to drink yourself to death…? well more than usual anyway."

She bit her lip trying to decide what she wanted to do before relenting, "fine, let's take a walk."

I nodded and we walked outside with me following a step after her. We eventually reached a small bridge and she sat legs dangling off above the water, "My mother died when I was little, she told me the name of my father and where to go and find him on her deathbed. That's why I originally came to Fairy Tail, to find my father."

I sat next to her looking out over the one of the small streams that ran through town, "when I got here I met him… but he didn't know about having a child and I never told him… he was really strong and famous. I was afraid to tell him about being his daughter because of his large reputation and what his reaction would be. Years have gone by and I never told him, I kept telling myself I would tell him but I always chickened out fearing he might reject me. I thought when I became an S-class mage like him I would tell him, but I've already failed three times already. Erza, Mirajane, and now you have already passed in our age group, but I can't. He has gone off on a long term mission and sometimes I want to just leave without saying anything and just leave it behind me. I don't know what to do anymore."

She had a few tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes and she sniffed, "I love Fairy Tail but I can't stand being in the same guild as him without him knowing about our relationship."

I looked over a minute before sighing and giving her a hug, "He will be proud of you and your strength and your heart no matter whether you're S-class or not, it's just how parents work. This is just my opinion though, it's ultimately your choice whether you want to tell him as soon as possible, when your s-class, or even if you chose to leave it is your choice. This is something you have to decide for yourself but here is my only question. If you leave, will you feel any better than you do now? Knowing that you've left lots of friends and an unknowing father behind at a guild that is one large family itself." I released her and stood up, "I'll think I should leave you to your thoughts." I walked a few feet as she stared out over the slow stream and I stopped, "by the way who is your father?"

"Gildarts."

I guessed correctly and nodded to no one in particular "I heard he's a good guy, I would be willing to bet he would love to have a daughter, and you know luck when it comes to gambling. If you need to talk some more or just want some company I'll be at my place, the guild, or at Erza's teaching her to cook if she is still in town."

She remained silent and I shunshined back to the guild to see that Natsu and Grey had once again started a brawl and since Erza wasn't here to stop them the whole guild had gotten involved. I walked over to Mira who was standing at the bar, washing a few dishes and sat facing the carnage the guild was creating, "so, Mira, where are Master and Erza?"

"Erza took another mission about half an hour ago and Master just left to go to a guild master meeting a minute ago, if you hurry you could catch him. He asked for you earlier, I think he wanted to show you off to his friends at the guild master meeting. He did the same thing with Erza and myself when we made it to S-class."

Sighing I stood up, "well I suppose I should go, there isn't anything else for me to do right now." I smiled at the barmaid, "thanks Mira, see you soon." I calmly walked through the hall stopping every few steps and raising an arm to block an incoming item or person as I headed to the door. I stopped suddenly seeing a flaming fist to my left in the corner of my vision and watched amused as Natsu went flying in front of me, unable to change direction in mid air. I took another step toward the door intending on catching up to Master but saw Natsu was already charging me. I smiled really liking the guy's attitude. It was exactly like my own, before the war more than now though, he was positive, always improving himself, and the ability to lift a person when they were down.

I knocked his fist away before sweeping his feet off of the hardwood floor before whacking him into the ground. Putting a foot on his stomach to keep him from moving, "what you want Natsu?"

It was meant to be rhetorical but he answered me anyway, "Naruto fight me!"

I face palmed thinking, "I wasn't that bad, was I?" although looking back on it I was actually kind of worse. I now understood why Sakura didn't have any interest in me when we were 13, I was annoying. It made me realize how much I had changed personality wise, I was much more calm and thoughtful than before, and while I listened to others more than I used to my stubborn will remained. Natsu was the child of a dragon and he had the same limitless potential and stubborness I did as I a former jinchuriki. He needed guidance like I had needed and got from Jiraiya, Kakashi, and many others. He had was Igneel who was no longer here for what ever reason the dragon had to go and Master who didn't directly guide him. Perhaps I had found another student, one whose training I could hopefully see completed along with mystogan. I smiled thinking of my other 3 students who were surely were making their mark on their world.

"Natsu." He stopped in the middle of his rant about not listening to him and beating the crap out of me, "I have to go meet master." I smiled at him, "but, if you'd like I would be willing to take you as an apprentice."

I expected a more verbal response but all I received was a blank stare… I didn't really understand, I thought he would be happy to have a person to spar with and to teach him. Then he muttered "Igneel." And something else I could make out.

I understood now though, he thought anyone else teaching him would be betraying his surrogate father and original teacher, "Natsu, me training you won't be betraying Igneel. Besides I wouldn't be teaching you my magic. I just wanted to help you along in your hand to hand combat which is average, your speed which is above average but not amazing, your physical strength, and your tactics are extremely straight forward, that won't always work. Maybe a weapon of some sort also." I paused looking at his face which was rather comically scrunched up as he thought it over. "I want to turn you into the excellent warrior you have the potential to be and an even greater man. You can think it over while I'm gone."

I took my sandaled foot off of him and walked out the door. I heard Natsu call me and an Aye from Happy, I stopped and turned my head toward him and was slightly embarrassed as he bowed repeated, accepting my offer. I got him to stand up and nodded, "I look forward to the tor… I mean training." I disappeared in a swirl of leafs leaving a bewildered cat and an amazed Natsu.

I stopped a few seconds later on top of the train that had just left the station 5 minutes ago heading toward Clover Town where the guild masters met. I walked along the roof a few cars over to where I felt Master sitting down with another man whose magic power was incredible. While it wasn't the size of Makarov's or my own it was still impressive.

I walked down onto the side of the car and leaned down knocking on the window. Makarov had an eyebrow raised and the other man had a bewildered expression. Master opened the window for me and did a little roll to get into the seat next to Master. Master smiled at me and asked, "What brings you here Naruto? Oh, I'm being rude let me introduce you to Jura Neekis the ace of Lamia Scale, Jura this is the newest S-class mage of Fairy Tail, Naruto Uzumaki."

I knew of Jura from when I did a bit of information gathering on the government and important figures which Jura was as the latest Wizard Saint. Jura was a very large muscular man with to oval shaped black marks above his eyes that I wasn't sure whether they were his eyebrows or just marking, the rest of his head was bald and clean shaved. Although he was sitting I could see he practically dwarfed me in height, he wore rather strange, tribal looking clothing although my clothes were equally weird for this dimension so I couldn't say anything.

I stuck out my hand, "it's nice to meet such a strong, well known and liked person, and the newest appointed Wizard Saint at that."

He shook my hand but remained silent seemingly sizing me up, "you are very powerful yourself, Makarov-dono has found another quality mage for his guild. I would like to spar sometime in the future."

I nodded my consent and we began to talk about different events that were occurring, like the formation of the Ballam Alliance which had discovered recently, I heard the story about the rivalry Phantom Lord and my own guild which I didn't know about before, we told stories about different fights and other things. I found the man known as Iron Rock Jura was actually a kind person that cared deeply about his guild and guild master who sent him in place of himself.

An hour later we arrived at the meeting hall and it was more like a high school reunion than an important meeting, everyone was talking and laughing about things happening. Master took the opportunity to like Mira said, "To show me off." I met everyone at the meeting over a 5 minute period where Makorav enjoyed showing off one of his 'children' as handsome and powerful. Master Bob of Blue Pegasus who was a rather large, perhaps sexually confused Guildmaster, commented on how adorable I was and proceeded to hug me… I'm scarred for life. Master Goldmine of Quatro Cerberus was a cool guy, very fun to talk to. The other guild masters seemed nice as well, all having their own little quirk.

They were all happily chatting to one another about the latest happenings in their guilds while Jura and I stood in the back only speaking up once and a while or when asked a question.

Half an hour later I was quite bored and the same could be said about Jura who hid it better. Suddenly I felt Mystogen about 2 miles out walking in this direction at a slow, leisurely pace. I was going to go meet him seeing as I was bored and wasn't really needed… "Naruto," never mind I'm still needed.

I turned to master, "yeah, Ji-chan?"

He chuckled light-heartedly, "you'll be old too one day, you know. You can head back if you want, I've had my fun." I sighed in relief, "but, I would very much appreciate it if you head over to the guild Cait Shelter because their Master Roubaul hasn't attended the last few meetings nor sent anyone in his place, we are beginning to get worried about him." I shrugged seeing as that wasn't too bad of a request, as long as I got away from Bob who was still creeping me out slightly it was something I could do. "Say hi to Mystogen for me."

I nodded and headed out of town to where Mystogen was waiting for me. I looked up at the large tree where Mystogen was currently hanging upside down on a tree branch using only his feet, my clone sitting a few branches away. "Simply amazing isn't it, the feel of energy running through ones body whether it be chakra or magic."

Mystogen nodded silently and I glanced at my clone that got the message and dispelled itself in a poof of smoke startling Mystogen. I closed my eyes going through the training my clone put him through, the academy three, a few basic illusions which he had taken to, chakra control exercises, helping hone his hand to hand combat, basics to fighting with a staff, and he tested to be a water element. I rubbed my head thinking over a plan of training but in the end the choice was obvious, he would be a genjutsu specialist working with water and staff as defensive back up.

I smiled at the hooded man, "your coming along fairly quickly, your control is great. As I understand it, your current fighting style relies on your magic staffs to cast sleep magic and illusions." He nodded affirmative, "Very well I will teach you genjutsu also known as the art of illusion. It was one of the three main branches of chakra usage in my world and the most commonly overlooked, even when it was the most dangerous if mastered. It was a weakness for myself for most of my teenage years until I decided to change that and studied the subject to a great degree using those clones which I retain the memories of."

He looked mildly impressed with that concept. I paused thinking over my line of thought, "genjutsu is highly customizable as experts and masters create their own styles and types of illusions. For instants, one of the strongest men I have had the pleasure to know constantly used crow themed illusions that distracted and disoriented opponents, and before they knew they were in an illusion they would be immobilized or dead in some cases. I know 14 illusions most basic but very useful although I rarely use them because I don't have a need to use them. I will teach you some common genjutsu and teach you how to go about creating and using them. By the time I'm done with you, you will be able to immobilize people with a flick of your hand."

Mystogen spoke I his firm voice, "I realize how difficult it will be to reach that level, but even if I do reach it, there must be a weakness."

"there is always a chance of them breaking out which is why you need a set of back up skills, we will talk in more detail and begin your training after I go check on Cait Shelter for Master."

Mystogen shifted slightly at the mention of the guild, "something wrong?"

He shook his head, "no, it's fine. There is a little girl, Wendy, that dropped off there during my travels. I am guilty of not returning to visit, please tell her Jellal says hi."

"so your name is Jellal, huh? I suppose you're starting to trust me a bit more as your teacher."

Mystogen remained quiet for a moment, "I suppose you are a trustworthy person having come from somewhere else as well and for teaching me the way of your people. I will tell you about myself and why am here when you are done at Cait Shelter. Don't say my name in the guild, especially not in front of Erza."

I raised an eyebrow as he disappeared in a swirl of leaves off torward Magnolia. "So Erza is the one your counterpart has a history with. I suppose I'll find out when the time is right.

I decided just to go max speed, taking off my resistance seal and arrived at the village about 2 minutes later, the journey was 67 miles. It felt go to go all out again, even if it wasn't a spar. Racing through the wilderness, avoiding trees and other thing, was just as fun. The small town was bustling with people but I quickly realized something, only 3 of these people existed, the rest were one of the most complex illusions I had ever seen. They were being made by the largest magic signature who energy seemed to be… off. Off, would be the best way to describe it, it felt like I was there but not there at the same time. It made no sense yet fit as a perfect description.

As I walked through the village I was truly amazed by how crazy of an illusion this was. These people were practically alive, they each seemed to have there own personality, voice, and if it wasn't for my sensor abilities on full alert because I was trying to improve them. I wouldn't have noticed these weren't real. Roubaul was a hell of a mage, I assumed it was his doing. I was unsure whether even Itachi would be able to do an illusion to this degree and be able to maintain it for however long this illusion had existed. I made my way over to the guild building which was the shape of a cat's head and was clearly labeled Cait Shelter with their guild symbol above it.

As I approached the entrance the two other real beings came out of the entryway, one was an excited young girl around 9- 12, I couldn't be sure and the other… was a flying cat. I was slightly surprised to meet another one, I didn't think they were a regular thing seeing as I didn't find anything in the Crocus Library. I even found stuff on dragons in there, but not flying, "Who are you and why are you staring at me like that," talking cats.

The girl reprimanded the cat before I said anything, "Carla, don't be so rude. We just met him."

I raised a hand, "its fine, I just didn't expect to run into another flying, talking cat."

They both showed surprised expressions, "you know another Exceed like me/Carla?"

"Exceed?" I repeated, "so that is what your species is called, the other one didn't know because he was raised by people. His name is Happy by the way."

The cat suddenly had an annoyed/interrogative look on her, "that answers why you were staring at me, but not who you are and why you're here. We never get visitors way out here."

I rubbed the back of my head, a habit I had never gotten rid of. "Sorry about that, my mind does that sometimes. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, S-class mage of Fairy Tail and I am here on behalf of my master to check on yours. Seeing as he hasn't been to any meetings recently." I gave a little bow at the end of my introduction.

Carla looked slightly miffed that she could have got on an S-Class mage's bad side, while the blue haired girl looked at me with a slight awe.

"I'm Wendy Marvell and this Carla mages of Cait Shelter."

I smiled at her, "So, you're Wendy. I heard some nice things about you from a mutual friend."

She looked at me unsure, "who could you know that knows me, I don't know anyone outside of town?"

"He asked me to pass on the message that, 'Jellal says hi, and is sorry for his inability to visit.' I don't know whether that means he will come visit."

Her eyes widened slightly, "how is he, is he alright?"

She started rambling and I chuckled, "he's fine, I'll tell him that you want to see him. Now, I must go speak with Master Roubaul. Goodbye Wendy, Carla."

I was about to walk away but Wendy's childhood curiosity got the better of her and she asked, "what kind of magic do you use Naruto-san?"

"Just Naruto is fine, I'm not much for formalities. I use a lost magic called Ninjutsu and I am really fast." Still having my seals turned off I appeared behind her so fast they would think I just disappeared. I put a hand her shoulder and she jumped and fell in surprise. She stared at me in shock as I smiled, "what about you Wendy-chan, what is your magic?"

I helped the girl up and she stuttered out her answer, "I-I am the sky d-dragon slayer."

I blinked and stared at her and then at Carla, "what an odd coincidence, the other Exceed, Happy, his companion is also a dragon slayer. The dragon slayer of fire, I'm sure you'll meet one day. I really must be going. I'm supposed to meet someone after this."

With that tidbit of information stored in my mind I waved goodbye and walked into the guild toward the little throne-like chair where a man of short stature sat eyes closed, wearing an assortment of primitive looking clothes and a feathery hat/headpiece. Sensing that Carla and Wendy weren't near the building I pointed at one of the illusions, "you are very good at casting illusions, I wouldn't have been able to tell the difference if I hadn't been actively sensing my surroundings."

He stared at me with his mouth slightly open, "who are you?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, don't worry about your secret. I wont tell anyone, I'm sure there is a reason for you doing this…" I left the sentence opened hoping he would explain which to my pleasure he did.

"I suppose I will tell you, considering you already know about the illusions. I first must start with the story of my people, the Nirvit tribe. We were a people that lived 400 hundred years ago that were a part of the war torn, dark world that existed back then with the fallout with zeref's disappearence. My people disliked war as do most humans, so we created a powerful magic the can replace darkness with light, Nirvana. It was a symbol of peace and our greatest creation." He paused.

I nodded at him to continue his story, "Though Nirvana was taking the darkness from the world, the darkness was not gone but only moved. It eventually started to take over my people who lived in Nirvana. My people… we slaughtered each other until I was the only one who remained. I sealed the magic away since I wasn't able to destroy it."

I finally understood why his magic signature was so weird, "You're dead."

He nodded, "Very astute of you. I died after sealing it and have used my magic to keep my spirit here to guard Nirvana, until I find someone who can destroy it for good. Then a few years ago when Wendy was dropped of here by that guy it was just me here and nobody else so I created these illusions so she could have a foster family to grow up with."

I thought it over and he seemed truthful. I was a decent lie detector, though not at Ibiki, Anko, or Inoichi's level, "how big is Nirvana?"

He seemed slightly surprised by my question, "It is a massive city with 6 legs for mobility and a power lacrima at each leg with one extra in the main control room. The building and power sources regenerate. If even a piece of it is left, it will regrow back to its original state. Do you think you could destroy it?"

I remained silent, fuinjutsu was the way to go but it would take a while, "I could remove it, but I don't think I could destroy it."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not from Earthland, my techniques are not magic and I don't want to talk about it at the moment. I could create a pocket dimension that would be large enough to fit such a massive, powerful structure using seals. Then actually perform the sealing which will be difficult in it self, and then destroy the entrance to the pocket dimension. It won't be destroying it technically, but it will literally impossible to find." I stopped as another idea came to mind, "Actually, a better idea would be if I designed the pocket dimension to collapse and destroy Nirvana after say, a month. Then you will be able to rest in peace Roubaul-ji."

He looked very hopeful and slightly distrusting, "you can do this?"

I nodded and he continued, "How do I know you will not try and use this power. Also what will become of Wendy, I have grown attached to that girl."

"I can only give you my word that I won't use Nirvana and my promise to take care of Wendy after you have moved on. I'm sure that Fairy Tail would love to have Wendy too."

He stared intensely at me for a few minutes before sighing, "I will put my faith in you Naruto Uzumaki, do not fail and put the world into darkness."

I nodded, "It will take a while to do even with clones, creating dimensions that large is an advanced concept that hasn't even been touched by myself or other masters of the art of Fuinjutsu. It will take at least two years by my estimate, but I will get started right away and send a clone to keep you updated on my progress." He nodded his consent having waited 400 years already a few more wouldn't be to bad. "Oh umm, before I forget. The original reason I came here is that my master, Makarov, and the other guild masters have been worried about you because you haven't gone to any of there meetings."

"I'm lazy."

I sweat dropped at the answer before chuckling, "well I guess I'll head back home and tell Master that you're lazy when I see him. Goodbye Master Roubaul."

I turned and headed to the door, he didn't say anything but I feel his eyes staring at my back, hoping I would succeed and ended his prolonged stay on Earthland.

A few days later I was back in the guild after a little sight seeing I did around Fiore just as a mini vacation and to get to know the land a bit better. My favorite place was Hargeon's Beach, I had never been at a beach just to hang out and going in the water, but it was fun. Jiriaya would be proud that I got a few numbers from pretty woman while playing volleyball with a group of people I met, but in despair that I wouldn't be doing anything with those numbers.

I realized then that I only had an armored redhead on my mind when it came to that. Speaking of that redhead the day that she celebrates her birthday would be in a month (I know this doesn't happen in cannon nor does it say when her birthday is as far as I know.) I would have to plan something special… snapping out of the line of thought for now I continued my leisurely walk toward the guild.

I reached the large doors and pulled on the handle and opened the door only to see it was surprising quiet. Natsu, Grey, and a few others weren't here. That would probably be the reason for that, Nab was still at the board looking for the so called'perfect' job for his skill set which I had no idea what it was. Mira was cleaning like usual with master sitting on top of the bar 'snoozing' well he was actually perving on Mira and Cana, who was playing with her cards in a much happier mood than when I had left which made me smile as she nodded at me. Levy was reading by herself for the first time I could remember and I decided to talk to her because she was one of the few people I didn't know very well seeing as Jet and Droy usually ended our conversations because of there blatantly obvious crush on their female teammate.

I sat down in front of her, "Hi Levy, what's up."

She looked up from her book which was titled, Tale of a Mage and his Dragon, "Hey Naruto. I'm not doing much, just reading because Jet and Droy went off to go to some kind of male magic tournament which I didn't really want to go see so I'm reading this book for the 4th time. What about you?"

I shrugged, "not much, I just got back from running an errand for Master. You looked bored and you're one of the few people I haven't really talked to all that much, so here I am."

She looked at me oddly for a moment before shrugging, "alright then." She put her book into her bag. "what do you want to talk about?"

"umm… how about stuff you like, like I would guess reading?"

She got rather excited that someone would be interested in what she likes rather than praising her for something she didn't think deserved praise, "yeah I like reading, my magic is called solid script and it allows my write in the air and the word I write becomes that word. For example." she raised her pen and wrote 'water' in the air and the word turned into water and splashed the both of us and she flushed in embarrassment, "sorry, I didn't really think that through."

I just laughed, "it's fine, I actually think was kind of cool, no pun intended." I using water manipulation pulled the liquid out of her and my clothes and held it in a little orb of water in front of me before I flung it backwards where I hit master in the face. Master "woke up," with a jerk and fell forwards off the bar and landed comically on his head. He stayed that way for ten seconds and everyone was staring at him in shock except for Levy who had a hand over her mouth and was giggling up a storm and myself.

My shoulders were shaking like crazy as I tried to contain my laughter; the look on his face was priceless. That would teach him not to be a pervert in front of me. "Naruto!" that was the final push and I was laughing like crazy as master's arm grew outrageously long and smacked me into the floor where I continued to laugh.

"You should ha ha learn to control your ha ha urges master. Hahaha. Someone might do something someday."

Everyone looked at me like I was crazy except for Levy who saw what he was doing and Mira who just figured it out and bonked him on the, "Pervert!" everyone looked at master only slightly surprised. Master looked like a defeated man resigned to his fate. Much like Ero-Sennin when he got caught peeping.

I turned back to Levy who was still giggling a little. A few minutes later we were talking about how we both like adventure novels and similarities between my Fuinjutsu and her secondary magic called Runes which I planned to look up later. An hour later the doors burst open revealing Natsu and Happy, "We're back!" he strode into the guild and looked around spotting me he ran over and sat down. "Naruto you're back." He was practically bouncing off the roof. "When do we start?"

It was almost 5p.m. a bit late to start training and I was a bit tired anyway. "Tomorrow Natsu meet me in front of the guild at 6 in the morning, don't be late. Happy you can come too if you want. I can come up with some things to do or you could just watch."

Levy was clearly not following what we were saying so I said, "I offered Natsu to be my student."

Levy blinked and congratulated Natsu when I felt mystogen appear 40 ft in front of the guild in a shunshin and a wave of sleep magic washed over everyone. I heard Natsu say, "Not again," before collapsing onto the table along with Happy and Levy.

I dispelled the illusion and walked over to master who looked extremely exhausted from fighting off the spell. I put my hand on his shoulder and shot a tiny bit of chakra into him dispelling the illusion, he lifted his head and stared at me, "that's how you do it, you compress your magic and then release it in a burst."

I said "Tell Natsu I went with Mystogen and I expect him tomorrow at 6.

He nodded as Mystogen walked into building and nodded toward me and master. I got the message and went over to the Levy and put A Tale of a Gutsy Ninja and the two prequels in front of her. The prequels, I wrote based on Nagato and Jiriaya himself along and I left a note in front of her face saying they were from me and I wrote 2 and my godfather wrote the other. Also, that I wanted her opinion before publishing them. I walked toward mystogen who turned around to leave and master said, "turn off the spell."

My apprentice nodded. "5… 4… 3… 2… 1…" I heard a few people groan and complain off in the distance.

"my apartment." He nodded and we both shunshined into my living room. "Go ahead and sit, make yourself at home." He nodded thanking me before taking a seat. I walked over to my kitchen and poured two cups of lemonade iced tea. I put one in front of him on the little coffee table I had bought and sat across from him, "do you want anything to eat?"

He shook his head and pulled off his hood allowing me to see his face, he was quite young looking with bright blue hair and a tattoo over his right eyes. "I am Jellal of the world called Edolas."

I waved my hand for him to continue, "to get straight to the point I am in a self imposed exile to stop my father who is king of Edolas from stealing this worlds magic for his own personal greed through an anti-magic called anima. In Edolas we used to use magic the same as here except for we don't have any magic in our bodies and the world itself only has a limited supply of it. In recent times we have been in an energy crisis and my father as king banned magic so they could horde and ration it in the capital city."

"My father learned of this parallel world and devised a way to suck the magic into our dimension and turn it into a lacrima. This means it sucks up this world's magic and can even suck in mages and turn them into a lacrima which I deeply opposed to. He ignored me and went power crazy, using anima to steal this world's magic. I learned a way to close the anima and came here to do this since I was about 12."

He looked sad about his father but looked up at me with a very serious face, "I thank you for teaching me, not just because it will make me strong. But, it will help me save both of our worlds… well my world and this world."

I shrugged, "you might as well say this is my world now, I can't return anyway and I have found a home here in Fairy Tail. I will help you in any way I can, I know what it's like to have a whole world's fate on your shoulders and how important it is to have comrades. The man I told you about that was a great illusionist once told me these wise words, 'though you may have grown strong, do not forget what is important. Do not try and take on everything by yourself or you will fail. Your comrades and friends will always be there to help when you need it.'"

He looked at me and nodded, "thank you for the advice, sensei." We were both quiet for a moment before he spoke again, "do you mind telling me of your world?"

I looked at him for a moment before pulling out a scroll and pulling out another set of books and tossed them to him, "this is what my world was like, the first two were based on two people's actual lives and the third was me. But, it played out differently with a similar ending because the book was written before I was born by my Godfather who is the main character in the first prequel. In fact I was named after that book by my parents. Perhaps after you read the books I will tell you what really happened in the third book."

He stared at the books for a moment before nodding, "would you tell me about Genjutsu?"

I woke up the next and turned and looked over at the read which read 6:55. "Shit," I swore as I quickly got up and rushed around getting ready for the day. I had fallen asleep around 3 in the morning having talked and lectured Mystogen in detail about genjutsu, subtle genjutsu's that were meant to be small and unnoticed, what I called power genjutsu that were very powerful but usually easier to detect, and area genjutsu's that changes everyone's perception of the environment around them. Different ways of setting the illusion; sight, smell, sound, the brain directly, the nervous system, the rare illusions of touch or taste, and how the combination of these senses in an illusion made them more realistic and therefore more powerful, whether it be a small technique or large. The quality of the illusion was the most important part. They would start the steps of actually doing and creating illusions in the next lesson.

I shunshined in front of the guild where a dead tired looking Natsu was sitting with Happy asleep on his head. "You're late!"

The yell pieced my heart because it meant I was as bad as Kakashi… I had the strange urge to cry in a corner with a raining thunder cloud above my head. Then I thought, "oh well might as well go all out." Then I said, "sorry, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around."

He deadpanned at me, "what kind of stupid ass lie is that!?"

Happy would was now awake agreed, "Aye, sir!"

I shrugged, "whatever, but I'm here now so lets get started." I grabbed the dragon slayer's shoulder and the Exceed's tail and shunshinned to a clearing a nearby clearing where you could see the ocean and a small piece of beach. Natsu was immediately on the ground with his face green and bulging comically as he tried to keep down his last nights dinner. "it feels slightly nauseating the first time but you shouldn't puking your guts out Natsu."

It was Happy who responded, "Natsu gets motion sickness, even on trains." I raised an eyebrow, trains were really smooth rides. I put my hand on his head and used another basic medical jutsu for stopping pain or nausea.

Natsu sat up, the urge to puke gone and saw my hand glowing green. "Oh my God, teach me that… PLEASE, PLEASE. PLEASE."

I chuckled, "umm… I can't you aren't compatible for my magic, in fact only one person in the guild is, but mystogen doesn't have motion sickness." At his disappointed silence I decided to start the training, "alright lets get started with a quick run, 40 laps around the clearing, this equals roughly 5 miles." Before he could groan I spoke, "I will make it longer if you complain, and I will be doing it with you. I promise that in a month you will stronger than ever before, in a year you wont even recognize, and in two years you will be S-Class material."

His mouth was open and… he was drooling fire imagining his emanate awesomeness. "Hai, Naruto-Sensei."

We worked out over the next 6 hours and I was impressed with his determination and the fact that he wasn't giving up. We ran a total of 14 miles, did 800 push ups, sit ups, squats, leg lifts, and other activities. I stretched him, literally. He needed to be more flexible.

His current fighting style was that of a brawler, that knows how to punch and kick correctly, while also throwing in his magic where ever he could. This needed to change so I choose him a fighting style ironically called "soaring dragon," it was a fighting style based on gaining more and more momentum, getting faster and stronger with each strike, as you attacked and using your opponents energy against them to counter and turn the tide while on the defensive. I had no idea why the person who made it named it soaring dragon, as dragons just plowed their way through with pure power to begin with.

He understood the basic idea behind it after a few hours of practice, which meant we had been training for 8 hours today. We ate and then we moved onto mental capabilities where he failed miserably. I encouraged him and never put him down. We played puzzle games and knowledge games, and strategy games to stimulate his mind a bit. I hoped he would eventually think a bit more when he was fighting rather than the head on charges he used now.

He questioned why we were doing this and I replied that some missions were more intelligence oriented and some battle situations required thought, risk being hurt or worse a friend being hurt. I gave an example by asking what he would do if someone told him to kill the client while holding Happy hostage, he had no reply. After that he put more effort into improving his mind, so he could come up with a solution. Afterward I made large rounded hole and used a water jutsu to fill it, while Natsu heated it. We sat in there for a while, letting ourselves unwind and loosen up after a hard day of training.

This is how the next two and a half weeks went as Natsu slowly got stronger and more intelligent… kinda. We were having spars everyday now so he could get better at the fighting style and add his own magic that he added in. Natsu was now an A-class Mage, by my standards not this worlds, although S-class was a ways off.

The guild was once again very loud with fights and other activities going on even with Erza having returned yesterday. Although she wasn't saying anything, I could tell she had a sort of fond yet annoyed outlook on the current brawl/party and I walked up to the beautiful girl and leaned against the wooden wall next to her, "Hey Erza, how was your mission."

She gained a tick mark, "it sucked, the bandits were really weak but, it took me forever to find them because tracking isn't my strong point. That was one of the most boring missions I've ever been on and the pay wasn't that great. I think I'll take an S-Class soon. How about you, do anything fun?"

I shook my head, "Nah master took me to the guild master meeting which was a little boring for me."

She nodded in understanding, "Master did the same thing when I became S-class."

"then I ran over to Cait shelter for an errand for Master. I suppose the only interesting was getting back and starting to train Natsu."

She looked surprised, "You're training Natsu."

I nodded, "I am. Natsu is thick-headed, and sometimes down right stupid, but I'm sure you've noticed as well…"

She cut me off, "He has the potential to surpass me, he doesn't give up and adapts to stronger opponents. I've known him longer, I noticed."

"I never said you didn't, he is already improving physically and slightly mentally. I'm still trying to beat logic into his head so he has it when he needs it."

She chuckled, "Natsu is like you said, thick-headed. I remember when I was teaching him how to read, I had to threaten him to get him to pay attention."

I snorted at the idea but considered using it, "So do you have anything planned?"

"For what?"

I looked at her stupidly, "your birthday obviously, Master told me it was in two days."

"Master told you the truth, but I don't normally celebrate on my birthday. I usually just take a challenging mission and buy myself a new armor or sword with the money."

I stared at her ludicrously, "well you aren't going anywhere this year, I am going to throw you a party. How's that sound?"

She looked uncomfortable, "I'm not much of a party person." She said as she gestured to ongoing party going on in the guild.

"Alright then just a small get together, you, me, master, mira, her brother and few more people. We'll even make a large strawberry shortcake for it."

She rose an eyebrow, "we?"

"Sure, we haven't had a cooking lesson in a while and I haven't taught you how to make cake and since your birthday it's the perfect time. In fact why don't I cook you a feast to make up for all of your missed birthday parties, you can join me if you'd like." I thought my voice was a little weaker at the end but she didn't seem to notice.

She smiled warmly at me, "that sounds nice, I'd like that."

I cheered inside my head, getting to spend some time alone with a girl I liked was always a positive. "who did you want to invite?"

"Just the people you said and Natsu and Grey will be enough."

"Alright then I'll invite them and you come to my apartment at noon tomorrow so we can get started on the cooking. Where do you want to have the mini party, my place, yours, or somewhere else?"

"I like Magnolia's little beach, and it's not normally very busy."

"the beach it is then," I smiled at her and said, "see you later then," and went off and invited the chosen people, making sure Elfman and Natsu didn't yell about like they normally would have. Mira seemed delighted that her friend and formal rival was doing something social and agreed to come.

Master agreed and looked at me with a grin, "so throwing Erza a party, huh. I wonder why you would do that for a girl you've only known more a few months?" I blushed and his grin just got wider and I saw Mira's eyes widen a bit. Mira remained quiet but master was laughing, probably at the blush I felt heating my face.

Mira swatted Master on the head, "don't tease him, he's just being nice."

I silently thanked her as Makarov shut up a little, before I went to go to invite Grey who was starting to strip when I caught and stopped him. He agreed in his usual aloof way although he seemed wary about being near the girl who regularly stopped his and Natsu's fights by beating the crap out of them. Everyone having been invited who was supposed to be, I left the guild planning on buy Erza a present.

I thought about what to get her for a while until I knew what I would be getting her… or more like making her. I turned down to the decent sized shopping district in Magnolia and found a shop that sold swords and armor, in other words it was a blacksmith.

I walked into the shop and walked through the aisle fairly impressed with the quality of the items, being a forger of weapons and other metal things myself. I could see the amount of hours put into these and appreciated them. Deciding I had looked through enough, I walked up to the counter where a man around 50 years old with graying hair and mustache sat eyeing my sword with a critical eye.

"Welcome to my shop. That katana you have is very nice, I would like to buy it off you if the price is right."

I shook my head, "it was my mothers, I'm not willing to part with it unless I'm passing it one to my own child when I have one or give it to someone I want to have and use it."

He nodded in understanding, "well then how may I help you?"

"I would like to use your forge as well as materials. I will pay for it all of course."

He looked at me oddly, "I get custom orders all the time but I do believe this is the first time I have someone who wants to make there own stuff. I assume you know how to use everything and I won't get sued because you hurt yourself?"

I snorted and said sarcastically, "no, I have no idea how to use a forge."

He put his hands up defensively, "hey man you never know, there are some stupid people out there."

"Fair point, does 50000 jewels an hour sound plus material cost sound good?"

He nodded excited, perhaps I said a little bit of a high number, "yeah use it all you want, but I would like you to show me you're creation at the end. I need some inspiration."

"sure thing," I replied

The man led me the back to where a well kept forge was and said pointing at the storage area, "the materials are over there. Also clean any mess you make or the price goes to 60000 jewels an hour. Don't forget to take your time."

I chuckled at the man's humor as he went back out to the store portion of the building. Alright to make a very nice armor would take a good amount of hours so I got started with the sword while thinking how I wanted to go about creating the armor.

An hour later the swords, I ended up making two, were finished and I couldn't be happier with my work, both steel infused with chakra which gave it a black color with blue sporadically placed throughout it in a neat looking design. The purpose of infusing my chakra was that it functioned to strengthen the blades and keep them sharper for longer periods of time. The hilt of one was a vibrant red hilt with a yellow engraving of Erza and the other was bright yellow with a red engraving of Scarlet. Neither sword had a guard which added weight and to me were somewhat cumbersome.

I engraved a cleaning seal, weight seal, regeneration seal, and an absorption seal, cutting the seals into the blade with wind manipulation. The cleaning seal was self explanatory and the weight seal made it weigh half its actual weight which was 12 lbs. The regeneration seal was a more advanced version of the seal that was on Kubikiri, that Zabuza had once owned, which I had studied. It regenerated without the need of blood, quicker as well. The absorption seal was something I had developed by myself over the past few weeks while training Natsu and making the seal to destroy Nirvana, it would absorb the energy of any type of magical attack, whether it be fire magic, ice magic, lightning magic, and etc. and then could be used as a counter attack or simply stored for later. I got the idea after watching Natsu eat fire and then using it to power up his attacks. Having looked over the sword for any problems I put them down to the side and prepared to build the armor.

I planned it to be a comfortable armor that would be light due to multiple weight seals I planned to engrave in it, to make the metal plating in layers so it fold in on itself slightly so movement wasn't hindered, and all the same seals as the swords except rather than an absorption seal their would be a powerful barrier seal that would at least mostly cushion if not fully dissipate powerful magical attacks like… well rasenshuriken or anything stronger.

I decided on a stronger metal than the sword, ebony, that I would infuse with chakra to make it more protective and also, with the colors of black with faint blue traces, it matched the swords as a set. I created a clone and set it the task of going to make a black version of her usually blue skirt to go with the armor set. The inside of the armor there was silk covered leather to make the armor soft, cool, and comfortable. It weighed a total of 5 lbs with the 3 weight seals on it.

I made a pair of ebony/chakra plated boots and a set of forearm guards that would reach just below her knees/elbow. The boots had a cushion seal that I had on my own sandals that cushioned falls and made walking long distances much easier on my feet. (Dr. Scholls ftw.) I suddenly thought of the kunai shaped earrings she wore and smirked thinking of another good idea…

Having finished I looked up at the clocked and my mouth fell open, I had been working here for 13 hours, I had came in at 11 a.m. and it was now 12 at night. I didn't realize I had taken that long, and suddenly realized I was kind of tired. I called out to the store owner who groggily came walking in, , "I was asleep you terd."

"I'm just following your instructions, call you when finished."

He deadpanned at me, "I didn't mean during the middle of the night but whatever let me take a look." I looked over the swords and each armor piece, studying them for any imperfections before speaking, "you did a hell of a job making this, although I don't know what the blue in the metal or what those markings are. I assume they are magical enhancements of some sort?" I nodded and he stared at the chest piece and smirked, "you must really care for this girl, to spend so much time and to do such a quality job on this set. Not to mention how much all of the Ebony is going to cost."

I blushed slightly at his connection but nodded anyway, "I have to admit I do care about her, she is the most wonderful, kind yet somewhat strict, strong, beautiful woman I have ever met. The better I've gotten to know her the more I fall."

He smiled fondly in remembrance of his youth, "to be young and in love, those were the days." He paused staring at me, "Well go get her kid. I hope it all works out, after all this all will cost you 2,340,000 jewels for all of the materials and use of the forge."

I choked on nothing not expecting that much, coughing slightly I pulled out my wallet and unsealed 2.5 million jewels and handed it to him. "keep the change."

It was his turn to drop his jaw to the ground, "how rich are you?"

"fairly rich, after all I'm an S-class mage of Fairy Tail." his jaw made an imprint in the ground as it pushed into the ground. Suddenly something hit my mind, "how stupid of me, the armor still needs one final touch," I held my finger out and flared my chakra out of it causing it glow blue. Then I placed my finger onto the right breastplate and burned, in a dark blue, the Fairy that was our guild mark onto the armor.

The blacksmith nodded his approval and said, "Now get out, I want to go back to sleep."

I smiled at the annoyed tone in his voice, "hai, hai, I'm going. I put my hand over each of the seals I put on the pieces and activated them before sealing each piece into a large scroll I had brought. Finally done I headed home for a good night's sleep.

The next afternoon I woke up to the sound of a door bell ringing. I groggily got up and started toward the door, still a mess and dressed in my underwear when I suddenly realized the time and consequently who would be at the door right now before running straight into my bathroom to clean up. I quickly made a clone and sent it to get cooking supplies, it would be back in five minutes and that would be my excuse. That I was out to buy stuff we needed to make the food.

A few minutes later, I heard the front door being unlocked and the sound of myself talking. The clone came into my room and it nodded at me before dispelling. I walked back out to the living room where Erza was sitting on my couch, "alright, let's get started." We walked into the kitchen and started getting out different ingredients, pots, and pans. We talked and I explained to her different things about cooking as we made a large assortment of food ranging from ramen to sushi to potato salad to a large ham, all of which I sealed to get fresh and even warm before we started on Erza's favorite strawberry cake.

As we made the batter, me cracking eggs and her stirring the mix she asked, "where did you learn how to cook all of this?"

I looked her for a few moment, "reading."

She deadpanned at me, "there's no way you could have learned all of this by reading, I would know. I've tried to learn through those cookbooks and I always burnt stuff. Spill it how did you learn all this, your mom teach you?"

I shook my head. "My mother and father both died the day I was born protecting me and my former home."

She looked a little guilty at that knowing a similar pain as an orphan, "erm, sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's fine, I have come to terms with their deaths and knowing that they loved me is all that I need."

She seemed slightly appeased at that, "you're lucky, sort of. I don't even know who my parents are."

I put a hand on her shoulder, "what's important is you found a family in Fairy Tail. Everyone in the guild will always be behind you, myself included." She smiled before noticing my own devious smile and the fact that she now had egg goop on her shirt. I let out an exaggerated, "Oops, it was an accident."

She looked at me with an unreadable expression before a smile crept onto her beautiful face as she stuck her hand into a bag of flower and flicked some of the white powder all over my shirt, "My bad, I thought the shirt could do with a little white."

I looked at my chest seeing all the powder and said cheerfully, "you won't win this you know."

She suddenly flicked more directly into face and I recoiled as she said, "won't i."

I grabbed an egg and held it over her head ready to crush it. She put a hand on her hip, "you wouldn't mess with my ha…" she was cut off feeling a gooey liquid through her hair and onto her face. She squeaked and her mouth opened which she immediately regretted as I tossed a bit of the cake mix at her face. She spit out the uncooked mix and said, "It. Is. On." Before grabbing the whole bag of flower and chucking in at my head.

I side stepped the bag and jumped out the window cackling. I heard her following me jumping across the rooftops yelling that she would get me. If any of the guild members had seen the great Erza, S-Class mage, running around rooftops covered in goop and still smiling and laughing, they would have thought they hit their head a little too hard during their last party brawl.

She had chased me around for… I would say 20 minutes before I lost her and I decided to hide in my apartment, she would never expect it. I got back and jumped in through the window when I was suddenly tackled to the ground and felt a pleasant weight on my stomach. I looked up to see Erza smiling victoriously at me, "I got you."

I mocked looking in fear, "what are you going to do?"

She hummed, "well your hair is short and easy to clean so egging is out. Maybe I sho…"

I choose this moment to turn the tables and flip her on to her back and straddle her stomach. I smirked at her shocked face, "you should underestimate my speed, Erza-Chan." My smile grew as she blushed at our position. Our eyes connected for a moment before we were both caught staring into each others eyes. My head started to lower on its own and before I knew it I felt our lips brush against each other. Not hearing or feeling a protest I brought my lips back down onto her's and started to caress her lips with my own. Suddenly, the pleasure increased as she started kissing me back, both of us were sloppy as far as I could tell, but it didn't make the feeling any less enjoyable. I brought up a hand to cheek and ran my hand over her skin gently as we kissed.

After what seemed a lifetime we separated, both panting slightly from the lack of oxygen. I felt my heart beating fast not knowing what to say when suddenly she pushed me up as she stood up. She stared at me happily for a moment before something changed in her eyes before she looked away, "sorry, but I have to go." And before I could say or do anything she was gone.

I sat there in shock for a few minutes before my brain started to function again and I said to myself, "What just happened." I started to pace back and forth unable to stay still, "what did I do? Was it something I said, no I didn't say anything," I slumped onto the couch and rubbed my head, "Ahh, I don't understand women. That kiss… was amazing, better than I could have ever dreamed. What the hell should I do, should I follow her or let her alone to think?" I grasped my head, "I'm so confused." I sat there rather depressed for, well I'm not sure how long before I fell into a uncomfortable sleep.

The next morning I woke up hearing people and birds making noise outside through the open window which I promptly slammed shut before laying back down and closing my eyes. 5 minutes later realizing this was going nowhere I just got up to make myself some cereal, not really up for cooking or cleaning up the mess that was made yesterday. Yesterday… I ended those thoughts before they began and walked outside intending on going on a nice long walk before heading over to the beach to the party which I still had to go to despite the awkwardness that would ensue. I had been the one to set it up and had the food too so I couldn't just bail, as much as I liked the idea.

On my walk I decided to just avoid her during the party as much as I could, as dumb as I knew that sounded it was the only way I could think of getting myself to go. I went home and got everything I needed to bring before shunshinning over to the beach we had agreed on to see that everyone was already there, including Erza who avoided my gaze and stared at me when she thought I wasn't looking. I was having trouble not looking at bikini clad form though.

I decided to hang out with Natsu and Grey in the water, body surfing the decent sized waves of the high tide and walking on the water much to everyone's shock. An hour later we all got out because it was time to eat, I got many praises for the food along with Erza. After eating Master pulled me aside, noting the look on his, he seemed concerned, "what's wrong with you and Erza today? The two of you have been looking at each other while the other isn't for the whole day."

I bit my lip, "I… don't really want to talk about."

"Okay, bye."

My jaw dropped as master turned to leave without even trying to help me, "Matte, Matte."

I looked back at me, "yes Naruto-kun."

I hung my head, "fine I'll tell you." I told him everything that had happened the day up until her being happy after our kiss and then suddenly being sad and leaving.

The whole time he listened until I was finished, "Maybe, you're not a good kisser… or had bad breathe."

"Masterrrrrrr… this is serious."

"fine, fine that wasn't it. I honestly think you should go talk to her alone after the party." He looked at me, "I mean today, or you will never do it." he seemed sad for a moment, "then you might lose her forever."

I looked at his change in mood, "did this happen to you?"

"yes and no, it was a different situation but I decided to do nothing, a decision I will regret forever. I might tell you about it later, but now it's time for the birthday gifts.

The group got together and we all sat on the sand in a circle, "alright everyone it's gift time, I'll go first." Master said handing her a box. Erza thanked him before opening it to see a necklace that held a magic that allowed her to transform into a few different animals.

I was pretty sure that was just something he had laying around but whatever. Mira and Elfman got her a card and an ornate dagger which was more for decoration than use. Natsu and Grey both were highly uncreative and both got her a free dinner at her favorite café in magnolia, which was funny because they began to argue about who stole who's idea before Erza whacked them both on the head causing them to apologize before shutting up.

Which left me as the last to give my gift, I took the scroll off my back and handed it to her much to everyone but Erza's confusion, who knew what to do with its, confusion. Natsu and Grey were the ones who voiced this, "Umm, why did you give her a scroll… hey stop copying me, grrrr." They butted heads before master's titan sized hand squished them. As they sat up Erza unrolled the scroll showing the advanced markings and symbols of a seal. Everyone, especially master who had never seen this magic watched closely as she put her hands over the seal and pushed some of her magic into it. the poof that followed blocked everyone's vision of what had came out until the outline of the armor could be seen. Everyone waited for the smoke to clear to get a good look at the object. When the smoke finally dissipated everyone turned Erza who gave an uncharacteristic squeal, "they're so beautiful," she ran her hands over the main chest piece studying it. Before doing the same with the boots and arm guards. "And it was made really well, where did you buy them?"

"I made them, and the swords."

She seemed even more excited, "Swords?"

I nodded, "there are two swords in the next seal of the scroll."

She immediately had the scroll in her hands and unraveled it further and pumped in her magic. The smoke cleared leaving the two Katana laid out on the sound. She stood up and held her hands out, "let me try it on." She muttered a spell for new items as she glowed and her outline changed with the new armor the light died down leaving her standing there with her new armor and holding the two katana out with the red handled one in her right hand and the yellow in her left.

The armor was beautiful on her and looked like it was a near perfect fit. The dark black and bits of blue made a contrast to her fiery red hair. It wasn't a particularly revealing armor like some of her other outfits, but it hugged her curves, showing them off in a manner that Jiraiya would approve while still provided protection from physical attacks and allowed for great flexibility some heavy metal armors prevented. "Wow! It's so light." She turned and twisted her body, "and has a great range of motion, it's almost like wearing normal clothes. Thanks Naruto." She requiped back into the bikini she had been wearing before, and then hugged me. I wrapped my arms around her, unable to help myself from enjoying the feeling of her large, soft and yet firm womanly assets that were pressed against my bare chest and still confused as hell that she would hug me after rejecting me yesterday. then she whispered, "we'll talk about yesterday after everyone's gone."

She released me and we all went to go have cake… which I had ended up buying at a store along with ice cream and cookies. After desert it was getting dark out and people started heading back to their homes and eventually Master, Erza, and I were the only ones left. Master realizing it was just us, gave me a discreet thumbs up before leaving us alone.

We cleaned up the leftover party trash, putting it into seals I would later take do the dump. When we finished we sat there rather awkwardly until Erza spoke, "I'm sorry that I left so suddenly yesterday, I was surprised and confused slightly."

I could understand surprised, hell I felt it myself, "Confused?"

She nodded, "I thought you and Cana had a thing."

I shook my head, "no, we don't. I really do like you Erza. That kiss wasn't just a spur of the moment type of thing, it was how I feel about you."

She seemed slightly surprised but had a blush on her face and said, "why would you like someone like me? I'm so awkward and anti-social."

I looked into her eyes, "I like you because of you're intelligent, beautiful, kind, and most loyal person I have ever met. I like you're beautiful scarlet hair, how you act like a big sister to Natsu and Grey, your strength of will and to protect. I like you for who you are Erza, and I hope that I can say I love you someday."

I felt my heart rate rose to a level it hadn't before and I felt a little sweaty as she blushed and looked away from me, "I like you too, Naruto." My stomach did a flip in joy along with my heart which felt like it was soaring through the sky. She grabbed my hand with hers, her eyes were sad and her mouth opened again, "But, I don't think I'm ready to be in a relationship just yet. There is still something I need to do alone before I move forward with my life."

My stomach stopped it's jumping for joy as I suddenly felt like puking, "It's has to do with your past, doesn't it? something that you need closure on."

She nodded and I said, "I understand, I used to have a few of those myself before starting with a clean slate here in Fairy Tail. Besides, you're worth waiting for."

That got the cute blush I desired. I was surprised when she leaned over and brought her lips on mine for a second, "That was for being so understanding. You're the most wonderful man I have ever met in my life, when I'm ready and if you're still waiting, we can do that again."

I smiled, "I definitely will be waiting."

We stared at each other for a moment still holding hands, "so how are we going to act around everyone else."

She shrugged, "the same."

I looked at her for a moment before asking, "I know you said you aren't ready, but would you be my girlfriend for the next hour and watch the sunset with me."

I pointed at the lowering sun as she turned to see it, "sure."

I sat in the sand patting the ground next to me, but she walked up and sat in between my legs and leaned back onto my chest and I instinctively wrapped my arms around her waist pulling her closer, resting my head on top of hers. We said in unison "this is nice." We looked at each other and she smile serenely at me. We sat there in a comfortable silence as we watched the rippling waves run across the water and the falling sun shine, its dying light glimmering onto the clear, cool water. Eventually the sun and its rays of warmth left us as the coolness of the stars replaced them in the night sky. I was reluctant to get up but started to anyway, "Erza… Erza?" she was still leaning on me so I turned her slightly to see she had fallen asleep still with a soft smile on her normally stern face. I felt myself smile at her beautiful, peaceful face and picked her up, cradling her with all the care I could to not awaken her. I Took her to her home and tucked her in under the covers before leaving, taking one last look at her sleeping face.


End file.
